Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Saturday mornings are about to change for thousands of Western Bay families with the start of the junior winter sport season.

There'll be no more lazing in bed, with junior football, rugby and rugby league, hockey, netball and other associated junior sporting codes kicking off their seasons in early May.

However, preparations usually start early in the New Year with committees reformed, equipment checked, stocktaking and club houses cleaned out readied for the invasion of excited youngsters later in the year.

In recent weeks junior sport registrations have been taking place at the various clubrooms throughout the Western Bay of Plenty. With birth certificates at the ready, a myriad of youngsters have lined up to join clubs that, in many cases, have rich histories.

Rugby clubs such as Katikati, Rangiuru, Rangataua and Judea have all had centennial celebrations, with the clubhouse walls lined with photographs telling tales of earlier generations.

However, the most excited Western Bay youngsters, who can hardly wait for their chosen sport to kick off, are the littlies taking to the paddocks and fields for the first time.

Underpinning the hopes and aspirations of the youngsters who will line-up each Saturday morning are vast numbers of volunteers that make Saturday morning junior sport happen.

Whether setting up the fields, washing uniforms, manning the kitchen, refereeing or coaching teams, Western Bay junior sport thrives and grows because of the army of volunteers that give up their time to make a difference.

The start of the duck shooting season on the first weekend in May also sees the Bay of Plenty senior rugby season kick-off in earnest.

While local rugby has been played for the last few weekends, in reality, the games have just been the entrée to the big dance of the Baywide Premier season.

Local Sub-Union competitions have been taking place in the Eastern and Western Bay of Plenty and Rotorua since late March. Western Bay premier clubs have been as interested in the form of the other two regions as well as watching how local teams have been performing.

With just eleven round-robin matches to reach the playoffs in 2015, teams will have no second chances to avenge first round losses, as in last season's two rounds of play.

With automatic relegation set in concrete, there will be as much desire to win and desperation to avoid defeat, at both ends of the competition.

So, who will fight their way to lift the Baywide Premier silverware in triumph on the July 25 at the Baywide Finals day?

In the Western Bay, Tauranga Sports, who had a mortgage on the Baywide big prize in the first decade of the new millennium, and last season's Baywide premier titleholders Mount Maunganui, finished first and second in the competition.

Down in the Eastern Bay, Opotiki have reigned supreme, while there looks like a changing of the guard in Rotorua with Rotoiti taking the Tai Mitchell (Challenge) Shield from Whakarewarewa last weekend.

The other genuine premiership contenders are likely to come from the Western Bay of Plenty. Te Puke Sports, who are perennial top four finishers, narrowly lost their first three encounters before storming home to win their last two matches, can never be discounted.

The Blue and Black brigade at Te Puna are always in the mix while Greerton Marist at full strength will trouble a number of sides.

See ya on the sideline.