As the days grow shorter and the winter starts to cool off, the young and eager footy heads around the region will be looking forward to the start of their footy journeys through the local Auskick program.

Wangaratta Auskick Centre recently held their annual general meeting for the 2026 season, which is set to commence on Sunday, 3 May.

While all positions were declared vacant, it was a no-brainer Ben Watts would remain at the helm of the local program.

A dedicated servant of local footy, Watts was named 2025 AFL Victoria and National Nab AFL Auskick Volunteer of the Year, and said he was happy to remain in the role with the support of a raft of happy helpers.

“We got some good numbers coming through, I think we’ve increased to 15 on the committee this year, so doubled in numbers which is great,” watts said.

“We’ve got quite a few parents of younger Auskickers, which makes it a little bit easier for that transition process over the next couple of years, we’ll obviously lose some of the committee who have been on for quite a few years.

“We’ve got myself as president, Tim Leslie as vice-president, Katie Goodey as treasurer sharing that with Cody Johnston, and secretary returning after a few years off the committee is Zoe Ievenieks.

“We’ve put a couple of different portfolios together to make it run properly to try and have that support a bit more.

“We’ve got Marcus Jones and Marc Chenoworth have taken on ground coordinator roles, they’ll work through that.

“We’ve got a new mum, Ash Rogers, whose taken over as our barbecue coordinator, so she’ll coordinate all of our supplies so we’re ready to go, it’s fantastic she’s been able to take that role on as a new mum coming on the committee.”

Registrations for the local Auskick program are already open, and while the season is still a fair way out, judging by the numbers Watts is seeing already, it’s shaping up to be a massive year.

“Officially, our whole season will kick off on Sunday, 3 May, so we’ve still got quite a few weeks, but I know we’re well over 150 already, which is great for this time of year considering we’re well over a month away,” he said.

“When I look back at it, I reckon we’re about 30 or 40 up from the AGM numbers from last year, so we’re definitely looking like we’ve increased our numbers already.

“Maybe some people have registered earlier, but maybe we’re going to have a few more numbers than last year.

“We’ll do our under eights and under 10s muster day on Sunday, April 26.”

Watts said the Auskick program would continue their popular boot exchange initiative in coming weeks, which facilitates families to exchange boots which no longer fit for some which fit their growing kids.

The program would also look to link up with O&M, O&K and junior league clubs, to provide participants with the best experience they can.

“I think last year we had five or six half-time games locally at O&M games, that was always good,” he said.

“They had a run around in between a couple of junior league games, which was good, so we’ll look to do it again.

“One of the big things is we’re going to do our boot initiative again, that was a massive support last year.

“Having that boot initiative means parents don’t need to go out and buy footy boots for most of the kids for a year then they grow out of them.

“We’re going to start that in the next couple of weeks and get that ticking along for local families to know they can come along and ideally swap a pair of boots and grab a new set.”

For more information, visit Wangaratta Auskick on Facebook.