Junior football teams are heading to Tikipunga from all over Northland to honour a young footballer who died suddenly nearly three years ago.

The under-9 to under-12 teams from across the region will play a series of matches at Tikipunga Sports Park on Saturday, marking the end of their season and acknowledging the life of Aimee Lindsay.

Lindsay was 13 when she died suddenly of a previously undiagnosed medical condition at Kamo Intermediate School in November 2019, after an athletics event.

She had been involved in other sports including cricket, but was a particularly promising football player.

The midfielder entered the Northland Player Development Programme at 9 years old and was first selected for the Northland under-12 Girls Weir Rose Bowl tournament team at the age of 10.

The team went on to win the Weir Rose Bowl – the only Northland team to ever do so. She played in two further Weir Rose Bowl tournaments.

In 2019 Lindsay was selected for the NFF Northern Lights under-14 girls’ futsal team that finished third at the Futsal Youth National Championships in Wellington.

Dave Alabaster, area manager of the Northland Football Federation, said she was an outstanding player.

“Aimee was a real star. She was arguably the brightest male or female football prospect we had at the time.”

“She was outstanding as a footballer, she was outstanding as a person, just a real bright person and a real bright talent.

“It was an absolute tragedy when she passed away.”

Alabaster said the Aimee Lindsay Memorial Festival was intended to be an annual event and would be in future, but had been cancelled due to Covid for the past two years.

Teams were coming from all over Northland, from as far away as Kaeo and Kawakawa, Alabaster said, and each team would play at least five shorter-than-usual games between 8.30am and 3.30pm.

Unlike a memorial event in 2019, there would be no fundraising element and entry would be free.

The festival will include an acknowledgement of Lindsay’s life, Alabaster said, and her parents would be included in it.

“Her mum and dad are coming along on Saturday just to spend a little bit of time there.”