The New Zealand Secondary Schools National Futsal Championships take place from March 19 to 23 at the ASB Sports Centre in Wellington.

To keep up to date with all the results and standings please click here

The popularity of futsal among the country’s youngsters will be underlined this week when thousands of students gather at the ASB Sports Centre in Wellington for the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Futsal Championships.

Over 90 teams have entered from schools all over the country and they will fight it out in four categories – Junior Girls, Senior Girls, Junior Boys and Senior Boys.

The girls will take centre stage on Monday and Tuesday before the attention turn to the boys competitions from Wednesday through to Friday.

New Zealand Football Futsal Development Manager Josh Margetts is excited at the prospect of the country’s top young talent taking the court at the same time and says the event is a key part of the futsal calendar.

“We are again operating close to the capacity of the facility this year,” he says of the competition’s ongoing popularity.

“This event again shows the strength of the sport of futsal in the secondary school space as we continue the impressive growth of recent years,” he adds.

“I’m sure there will be some very interesting and competitive games throughout the week, along with another excellent chance for people to get in to futsal and fall in love with the game.”It’s not just the playing side of the competition that will be in the spotlight with Margetts explaining the week is also being used as an opportunity to grow futsal’s ever-expanding refereeing base.

“Quality and development is always at the forefront of our planning and this year we will see a heavy influence of student referees that will be officiating the games," he says.

"This contributes to our long-term plan of having the entire event refereed by secondary school students.”In terms of the silverware, the school to beat in the male competitions is likely to be St Patrick’s College from Wellington, who took out both boys titles last year. The reigning champions in the junior and senior girls sections respectively are Hamilton’s Hillcrest High School and Mt Albert Grammar of Auckland.

The draws for each category of the tournament are as follows (please click on title):

Junior Girls
Senior Girls
Junior Boys
Senior Boys 

All matches on the draw with a * will be live streamed.The live streaming is available by clicking here

For coverage and updates please visit www.facebook.com/NZFFutsal