Junior football in New Zealand runs through the winter, from late April to early September, on fields that range from bowling-green perfect to ankle-deep mud. The youngest players learn through First Kicks and Fun Football small-sided games, older juniors play graded competitions on Saturday mornings, and clubs wind up with prizegiving at the clubrooms where every child goes home with a certificate or a medal.
A slideshow at prizegiving lets each child see themselves on the big screen. The problem is the usual one: photos chase the ball, the ball chases the confident players, and the quiet defender or the kid who only plays half the game can go a whole winter without a decent photo. With a bit of planning, that is easy to fix.
A football winter, week by week
Late April, when teams are confirmed
Send the team's link to families once the squad list is final. Ask everyone to add one photo from the first training so the roster fills up straight away.
The first Saturday
Clean kit, nervous faces and parents on the sideline: the first weekend makes a lovely opening chapter. Ask families to add their photos that afternoon.
The July school holidays
Use the break to look at the coverage list. Defenders, keepers and kids who rotate off often need more photos. A friendly reminder that names them goes into the team chat.
Festival or tournament day
End-of-season festivals pack four or five short games into a morning. They are the best photo days of the year, so remind families the night before.
Ten days before prizegiving
Stop collecting a few days before the evening and watch the first cut.
Steps for a football team
Start the season with first names
Paste the squad's first names. Junior teams often hand out shirts from a kit bag each week, so only add numbers if each child keeps the same shirt.
Respect the club's consent records
Clubs and schools record photo consent at registration. Mark any child without consent so their photos stay hidden from other families and out of the slideshow.
Turn every parent into a team photographer
Ask each family to take one photo of a different child each week and tag them. With twelve families, that covers the squad within a month, and nobody has to chase anyone.
Take wide shots in small-sided games
First Kicks and Fun Football games are played on small fields, so a photo from halfway often captures four or five players at once. Encourage parents to zoom out now and then.
Rename the festival chapter and export
Once the cut-off passes, Saturdays become chapters and each child gets the same minimum appearances. Give the festival chapter a proper name, check the roll call, and export.
What makes a junior football slideshow memorable
Keepers love photos of a dive, but they love photos of the team mobbing them after a save even more. Muddy Saturdays make the funniest chapter of the season, so do not let parents skip the wet weeks. The moment after the final whistle, when both teams form a line for high fives, is one of the few times every child faces the same way; a short burst catches the whole squad. And training under lights midweek gives the slideshow a different colour from the Saturday games.
How long should a prizegiving slideshow be?
For 10 to 14 players, three to three and a half minutes lets everyone appear three or four times with team photos at the start and end. Clubs that play a slideshow for every team on prizegiving night should aim for about three minutes each.
Song length plannerFit your photos to the music, song by song.The Pitch style suits football with bold stripes and titles. Players moving up to youth football can be marked as leavers for a short tribute.
Prizegiving checklist
Before prizegiving night
- Find out whether the clubrooms have a screen or whether you need to bring a TV.
- Arrange the slideshows for every team in age order on one laptop.
- Put the slideshow before the certificates so children watch it, then walk up proudly.
- Ask a parent to film the room's reaction for the coach.
- Send the private link to grandparents who could not come.
Privacy and safeguarding
Faces are never scanned or recognised. Children are matched to photos by the tags their families add and the numbers on their jersey. Only first names are stored, location data is removed on the phone before upload, the season’s link is private and never appears in search engines, and anything inappropriate for a youth sports setting is hidden automatically. Any parent can report a photo, and the organiser has the final say on every photo in the video.
Football questions
Can a First Kicks group use it?
Yes. Any group of children with a season can have its own slideshow. Paste the first names and share the link.
We play futsal in summer. Can that be a second slideshow?
Yes. Create another season for futsal with its own roster and link; summer and winter stay separate.
Can relatives overseas watch it?
Yes. Send them the private share link; it plays in any web browser without signing in.
One family does not use the team chat. How do they join in?
Print the QR code from the share screen or email them the link. They can add photos the same way as everyone else.