Club Doncaster Foundation has been running female football development sessions in partnership with the Football League Trust for the past two seasons.
Currently in its second year, the aim of the project is to engage with 360 girls aged 14-25 over the course of the year who aren’t playing presently, have never played or are just looking to get fit!
We currently have delivered football sessions to over 260 girls across Doncaster and because of the increase in the number of session’s, we have had to recruit another coach to join our team.
Nicola Moran, Project Leader said “The sessions are becoming so popular and we need more qualified coaches to be able to deliver these sessions. We wanted to make sure that we could provide the young girls not only just a coach, but a role model that they could look up. Someone who hasn’t played before but wants to be involved, keep fit and make new friends. With the new This Girl Can campaign we need to make sure we jump on board to ensure all girls across Doncaster get the opportunity to take part.
Emma O Connor has recently been volunteering on the programme, and coming from a dance background has never played football before. Emma is a fully qualified and experienced dance teacher who wanted to add another and completely different sport to her coaching qualifications. She started off as helping out during the sessions and acted more as a role model for girls that had never kicked a ball before. Because of her hard work and determination, the Foundation have decided to send Emma on her FA Level 1 in Coaching Football so that she can regularly assist on sessions and feel more comfortable when working with the girls.
Emma said “I feel so lucky to be volunteering with the Foundation. The funding from the Football League Trust has now allowed me to enhance my coaching skills to work more closely with girls like me, who have never played before, on the programme. I can’t wait to get started!”
Emma will be taking her FA Level 1 in April and will then join the Foundations regular coaching team on our schools programme.
“The case study clearly highlights that any girl can. Given Emma’s background I feel she is a true role model for hard to reach girls. This is a complete innovative approached to typical football delivery staff, and may be the reason why we see high retention levels achieved by the Foundation,” Nicol Meredith, National Project Co-ordinator
For more information about the Women’s and Girls development programme, please contact Nicola Moran on nicola.moran@clubdoncasterfoundation.co.uk or call 01302 764663.