The Girls section of AFC Rushden & Diamonds Youth has grown tremendously since it was started by Dan Richards in April this year, followed by the introduction of our newly appointed Girls Football Lead, Kevin Bull, in June. We now have over 50 girls, ages 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 & 16, training with us, and are holding three training sessions during the week. We have assembled a team of both male and female coaches and helpers who are genuinely passionate about developing girls football and are working tirelessly with the Northants FA and Northants Women and Girls Football League to raise the profile of the female game over the coming months and years.
2015 saw us enter our first girls teams into the league, firstly our U14’s, assembled by Dan Richards (U13 Boys Whites Coach) in April, then handing over to coaches Stuart Cooper and Jo Swannell when Dan returned to his team in August. Shortly after the introduction of the U14’s, Kevin Bull, together with Stacie Franks and Alex Long, formed and introduced the U12’s to the club, who also joined the league. Both U14’s and U12’s started playing weekly games in September.
With the 2015/16 season well underway, and after several months of strengthening these foundations, we now look to the next phase of development, with the introduction in January of an U10 team into the league, and the addition of a second U12 team and a new U16 team ready to take part in friendlies with the intention of joining the league in the 2016/2017 season.
Like with all Football Clubs, one of the major challenges is finding and recruiting additional coaches. Therefore, to assist with our further development, we would like to appeal for both male and females, either with FA Level 1 qualification or with the desire to gain the qualification. The Club and existing coaching team will invest money and time in helping to train coaches, therefore the only cost to any new coach would be time and commitment.
We would also like to appeal for additional girls in School years 8&9 who are interested in playing football, to try out in our U14’s sessions with a view to joining our existing eleven girls at that level who are playing in the league. It would be fantastic if we could see another 3 or 4 girls join us over the coming weeks, this would make a huge difference and will provide our coaches, Stuart and Jo, with strength in depth.
