Zoe Whinham, Hanna Edwards, and Kennedy Wilson have recently had some incredible opportunities, results, and exposure in the futsal arena, competing at both national and international level.

The trio first represented Canterbury at the National Championships in December 2025. Zoe had the honour of captaining the side, leading the team to a dramatic semifinal where Canterbury narrowly missed a place in the final. After leading with just a minute remaining, the match finished level before Canterbury were edged out in a penalty shootout by eventual champions Waikato. Waikato went on to defeat the Wellington Phoenix Academy – a high-performance, semi-professional football programme that trains multiple times each week.

The same group of players then travelled internationally, representing Gosal Academy, coached by New Zealand Women’s Assistant Coach Shing Ina, as one of only two New Zealand teams invited to compete at the Gold Coast Youth International tournament in late January 2026. The event featured top Australian teams and offered the additional incentive of qualification pathways to the World Youth Championships in the USA in July.

The team performed exceptionally, winning a highly competitive six-match round robin to reach the semi final against the Crusaders Futsal Academy from Queensland. The final finished 3–3 in regular time, forcing extra time. Despite a tremendous effort, the girls were narrowly defeated 4–3 just moments before the match would have gone to penalties. With the opposition squad nearly double the size, fatigue proved to be the only real difference in the closing stages.

To highlight how close the team came to global qualification, the boys’ runner-up team at the same tournament received an invitation to the World Championships, meaning our Lincoln players were incredibly close to achieving the same opportunity.

Zoe was also shortlisted for the Golden Boot, scoring an outstanding 17 goals in her grade, alongside teammate Lio (14 goals), who unfortunately suffered an injury in the final round-robin match.

The girls are now setting their sights on representing Lincoln High School at the Schools National Futsal Championships in 2027.

Article added: Tuesday 10 March 2026