Omakau is a rugby-mad town in Otago with a population of less than 1000.
As such, sporting opportunities are sometimes limited but thanks to one grassroots legend, for the first time in the town's history they're fielding a football team.
While adults chat about Aaron Smith and the like, there’s a growing group of youngsters in the area who would rather talk about Cristiano Ronaldo – or imitate his goal celebration.
The only problem is that passion has had to stay on the sidelines with no team, let alone a club, able to field them.
That is, until a proactive parent named Kyle Hinton decided to give it a crack.
“I was going for an under-7s team and I thought I might have struggled to get it,” Hinton told 1News.
Hinton thought he’d get “maybe three or four” players when making the team but he did a lot better than that, managing to muster up 12 football fanatics.
Every week more are signing up and now Southern Football are getting behind it to ensure the team’s first season isn’t their last.
“These children out in these rural areas perhaps don't sometimes get the opportunity that the kids get closer to big cities,” Southern Football head of development Jess Ibrom said.
“Kids want to play different sports. They all don't want to play rugby so if we can support that as well that's good for everyone.”
Super coach Hinton's next goal is to set up Omakau's first football club where perhaps one day even the adults might be talking about Ronaldo.
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