History of Coastal Spirit FC
Foundation
Coastal Spirit FC was formed in late 2007 as a joint venture merger between Rangers AFC (est 1910) and New Brighton AFC (est 1959).
View presentation of merger proposal: 
Merger in MS Powerpoint [169kB] | 
Merger in Flash [151kB]
MPL appeals
Rangers AFC had retained a place in the Mainland Premier League for 2008, after defeating Burnside in a playoff at the end of the 2007 season. But Coastal Spirit FC's debut in the Mainland Premier League has been delayed due to Burnside FC having greater success in court (regarding player eligibility) than they had on the playing field. Despite Mainland Football advising that all players were cleared to play in the 2007 playoffs, NZ Football overturned their earlier advice with their Appeal Committee decision. This decision has been upheld by the Court for Arbitration in Sport. Coastal Spirit FC men's first team play in the Men's Division 1 (the old Qualifying League) with the aim of promotion to the Mainland Premier League.
First matches
Coastal Spirit FC's first match was on 14 February 2008 in the Coastal Spirit Pre-Season Tournament, with a 2-1 loss to Christchurch United. Jason Stapley was the first goalscorer for the Spirit. CSFC drew their next two matches in the Tournament 2-2 v Western and 0-0 v Avon United. The men's first league match was on 5 April 2008 at Kendall Park against North Canterbury United. Spirit won the Division 1 match 6-0, with Jason Stapley scoring 3 goals. The women's first match was a Premier League match at Bexley on 5 April 2008 beating Avon United 10-0. Emma Proctor scored the first goal and went on to score a hat-trick, with 3 goals also to Hannah Wong, and Megan Shea scored 4 goals. The match was later awarded as a 3-0 loss for both teams due to Mainland determining each side fielded ineligible players. The next week in the Women's Premier League, Western and Coastal Spirit drew 0-0. A week later came the first win, both on field and on record, 8-2 against Ferrymead Bays. Hannah Wong (3) Georgia Goulding (2) Alex Hepburn, Stef White, Maia Vink were the goalscorers.
Honours
In 2008, Coastal Spirit won the Women's Premier League and Reta Fitzpatrick Cup, Sunday League Men's Divisions 1 and 5 and the CSSL Trophy. CSFC were runners-up in the English Cup and Men's Division 1. In the inaugural Tsunami South Island U-19 Tournament, hosted by Coastal Spirit at Bexley in October 2008, Coastal Spirit finished 2nd, losing 4-1 to Western in the Final of the 10-club competition.
In 2009, Coastal Spirt U-15 Girls won the Kanga Cup in Canberra, Australia, beating Feng-Si JHS of Chinese Taipei 6-0 in the Final. Coastal Spirit Men's First Team won both the Division 1 League and Division 1 Cup. The Reta Fitzpatrick Cup was retained by the Women's First Team, beating Western 2-1 in the Final. In the inaugural Girls Tsunami South Island U-19 Tournament, hosted by Coastal Spirit at Bexley in October 2009, Coastal Spirit A became South Island Champions, beating Waimak 6-0 in the Final of the 7-club competition, with Monique Barker named Girls Tournament MVP.
First Team Coaches
Men:
2008-2009: Alan Walker
2009: Rob Stanton
2010: Paul Hughes
2010: Mick Curry
Women:
2008: Rowena Fulham & Mike Fulham (co-coaches)
2009-2010: Gareth Turnbull
Leading scorers
Men's First Team:
Jason Stapley 71
Women's First Team:
Hannah Wong 39
Leading appearances
Men's First Team:
Jason Stapley 62 (6)
Women's First Team:
Alex Hepburn 59 (1)
Emma Proctor 52 (8)
International/national selections
Coastal Spirit FC players selected for New Zealand Women Under-17 squad Australian Tour April 2008:
Victoria Esson, Gabrielle Kerdemelidis, Megan Shea.
The first cap was Megan Shea appearing as a sub for NZ U-17 Women's in a 4-0 win over Australia U-17 in Canberra on 15 April 2008.
Two days later, Victoria Esson and Megan Shea each played a full game for NZ U-17 Women's in another 4-0 win over Australia U-17 in Canberra on 17 April 2008.
On 20 April, Megan Shea appeared as a 25th minute sub for NZ U-17 Women's in a 2-4 loss to the older Australian U-20 side.
In June 2008:
- From our women's first team, Megan Shea and Victoria Esson have made an initial squad of 25 to prepare for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2008, while Hannah Wong is in the NZ U-15 squad.
- Haley McKnight from our Girl's U-16 is in the NZ U-14 squad
- Drew Solakoff from our Men's Reserves is in the NZ U-15 squad.
Megan Shea and Victoria Esson were in the NZ U-17 Women's 21-player squad that toured Paraguay in July 2008. Rowena Fulham is Assistant Coach. Shea and Esson both appeared as substitutes in a 4-0 loss against Paraguay U-17 in Asunción on 14 July 2008. Esson started and Shea appeared as a 60 min sub in NZ loss 4-0 to UAA (Paraguay club) senior team in Asunción on 17 July 2008. Esson started and Shea was an unused sub in NZ draw 1-1 with Paraguay in Asunción on 19 July 2008.
Megan Shea and Victoria Esson were in the NZ squad for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2008 in October-November. Rowena Fulham was Assistant Coach. Victoria Esson played in all three matches for NZ v Canada, v Denmark and v Colombia in the World Cup, Megan Shea appeared as a 77th minute sub v Canada and was an unused sub for the other two matches.
Victoria Esson was selected for the NZ squad for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2008 in November-December in Chile.
Hannah Wong has been named in the New Zealand Under-17 Women's sqaud to play in the 2009 National Women's League. The U-17 team will play in the Northern Conference of the League. The League commences in late October, with national playoffs in December. Hannah Wong scored one goal for NZ U-17 in their first match, a 4-1 win over Waikato-BoP and 4 goals in the 5th/6th playoff v Football South in an 8-3 win, appearing in 4 of the 5 league matches.
Full NZ U-17 squad | Fixtures
Ashleigh Ward was selected for the NZ U-17 women's squad for the 3 World Cup qualifiers in 2010 and appeared as a substitute in the 10-0 win over Solomon Islands amd 9-0 win over PNG, and scored 3 goals in the 18-0 win over Tonga. NZ qualified for the U-17 Women's World Cup as Oceania Champions. In July 2010, Ashleigh made 3 subsitute appearances for NZ U-17 in a 3-match tour of Australia - v NSW Institute of Sport (twice) and Sydney FC (senior women).