Girls can play sports too – that’s what the Thames Football Club is hoping to highlight with its newest enterprise.
The club has joined the MILO Fantails programme, a nationwide initiative aimed at getting young girls into the game, building their confidence and growing friendships. It’s the brainchild of New Zealand Football.
This is the first year Thames Football Club is running Fantails, and club president Mark Brown said he was hopeful it would provide girls a safe space to explore the sport.
“This initiative is aimed at girls that maybe haven’t played before or are maybe a little bit intimidated with a whole lot of boys running around if they’re the only girl,” he said.
“It’s based at Rhodes Park, they’re not travelling and going and playing games anywhere. They turn up, do a few fun activities… and then at the end of it, they get back together and they just have a reflection on what they’ve done and talk about what they did during the training.”
The principles of the Fantails programme include boosting confidence, developing life skills, creating friendships, improving skills and movement, and having fun being active.
It’s also an opportunity to provide the girls with female role models – the face of the nationwide programme is footballer Hannah Wilkinson. Thames Football Club, meanwhile, has partnered with a trio of high school girls to help with the coaching sessions.
“We’ve got two adults overseeing it and three high school girls to help run it,” Mark said.
“We’ve got about half a dozen [girls] – we’d like to have a few more, but the ones that are doing it are loving it.”
DETAILS: Thames Football Club’s Fantails sessions run from 10-11am on Sundays during terms two and three at Rhodes Park. Sessions are free. All girls from year 3 to year 8 are welcome, and new participants can register at www.thamesfc.co.nz.
