“I enjoy running up and down up the pitch, getting dirty!” Connie is one of more than 100 young girls aged 6-8 from schools across Barrow taking part in a project to get more girls playing football.
The partnership between Active Cumbria, Barrow AFC Community Foundation, twelve schools and Westmorland and Furness Council has been set up to tackle two barriers to more girls playing. Firstly, the fact that the current opportunities for girls in club football locally are to play in mixed teams. Katy Costa is a teacher at Dane Ghyll Primary School, one of the schools taking part. “I don't think there's anything for 6 and 7 year olds unless they want to play in a team that's majority boys. And it is a big barrier because even though some of them don't care, I think it does put some of them off.”
To address this, the project is running after-school girls’ football sessions in partnership with Barrow AFC, funded by the Community Power programme at Westmorland and Furness Council. The aim is to enthuse the girls to keep on playing after their school programme finishes. Those who take part are being offered a route into the local Wildcats programme on Sunday mornings. It’s hoped that sustained engagement will lead to enough girls participating to establish multiple girl-only teams and ultimately support the development of a Barrow Girls Grassroots pathway.
The second barrier is the quality of the pitches on offer for girls’ club football, with girls’ games often disrupted or cancelled because the grass pitches have been churned up by boys’ teams the day before. Funding from Westmorland and Furness Council has secured exclusive access on Sundays to a 7v7 pitch at no cost to under 10 girls teams and discussions continue about opening up access to other facilities across Barrow.
Lena Parker’s daughter has taken part in the matches on Sundays at the Barrow Astro Turf Pitches outside the Park Leisure Centre. “It’s great that the facility is open for when the grass pitches aren’t available. This facility is really good in the winter months. It’s really great to see them play as their game was cancelled the week before due to the weather conditions and the grass pitches were a write off.”
It is hoped the project will become part of the legacy of England double Euros winner Georgia Stanway, who grew up playing in mixed teams in Barrow. Mannie Angela from the Barrow AFC Community Foundation said she is an idol for girls in Barrow. “Everybody knows about Georgia Stanway locally, a local girl, so it's a no-brainer that we need to develop the next Georgia Stanway.”
Councillor Helen Chaffey, Cabinet Member for Communities, is 100 percent supportive of enabling young girls follow their footballing dreams. “Georgia Stanway is a total inspiration to our local young girls in showing what is possible. The Lionesses winning back-to-back European Championship titles was such a buzz! My own niece played with boys under 10s because there was no girls-only under 10s league in her area. It didn’t put her off, but it may put off others, so it is important we do everything we can to enable a girls-only league with reliable access to facilities. So I am delighted that we are able to secure exclusive access on Sundays to a 7 a side pitch at no extra cost to the under 10 girls team.”
Already the first cohort of 3 schools has gone through the programme, with 9 more to come between now and the end of the school year.
Wildcats is a Football Association initiative, offering non-competitive football for girls who want to give it a go for the very first time or want to play with other girls their own age.