Girls just wanna have fun…and learn football

A camp for the girls

It was all about getting young girls to love the sport, at the ‘Girls in Action!’ football camp hosted by George Town Sports Club at the Annex.

The 31 July – 4 August camp catered to girls five to 12 years-old. “I thought that having a girls’ camp would give the girls some empowerment and work on their fundamentals in certain areas of the game,” said Donna Wilson, the camp organiser.

Under the summer sun, young ladies of varying skill levels came out learn more about the beautiful game.

“A lot of the girls have the basic fundamentals of football…We have girls who have never touched a ball but they want to learn and we have girls who are in leagues here,” explained Wilson, who leads the GTSC girls programme and also coaches at George Town Primary School.

With that diverse background, they started from the grassroots. Areas of focus included the fundamentals, positions on the field, the laws of the game, as well as tactics and strategies. They also worked on circuit training and learning to dribble the ball properly.

There was also a focus on goalkeeping. “Some kids are afraid of goalkeeping but if you give them an understanding of what it entails, they may end up liking it.”

Wilson said with increased focus on girls and women’s football in the CONCACAF region, she thought it important to have a camp just for the girls.

She also said she wanted to instill values that go beyond the pitch.

“Today, we’re having problems with role models. We don’t have as many kids with [positive] role models. We don’t see as much as it used to be. So, having former players come out to help the girls, they really appreciate it,” the camp organiser said.

She thanked many former and current players who took the time to join in for brief stints to pass on their knowledge to the aspiring youngsters.

Any proceeds from the camp went to George Town Sports Club’s Girls’ Football Programme.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.