As we near the end of the year, we start looking forward to 2018 & how, as a girls football club, we continue to attract young girls to playing football as they are our mini stars of the future.
The FA has committed to doubling women’s & girls football participation by 2020 & having already established 200 SSE Wildcat Centres in 2017, Rugby Town Girls FC being one of the first! The FA & SSE are now creating a further 800 SSE Wildcat Centres across England in 2018 following on from the success of the first 200 & after positive indications of growth with an extra 205 affiliated girls only mini soccer teams, now totalling 1052 teams, a massive 24% growth in one season.
We will be re-applying for our status as an SSE Wildcats Centre once again & hoping to attract lots of young girls from throughout the borough of Rugby when the sessions start for 16 weeks in Spring/Summer 2018.
We will be aiming to partner local infant & primary schools & youth organisations (brownies, beavers etc) through our School Liaison Officer Jill Arriordaz, using the Wildcat branded materials provided by the FA & delivering after school taster sessions by our coaches, allowing new girls to give football a try for the first time.
The SSE Wildcats Centre concept was introduced in 2017 to address the findings that only 3% of all mini soccer teams cater exclusively for girls & as such only 41% of girls (compared to 95% of boys) under the age of 10 regularly play football. Over 5300 young girls across the country took part in the program last year & the FA are looking to increase this number considerably next year with the simple aim of ‘Have fun, make friends, play football!’
An SSE Wildcats Centre is an opportunity for girls age 5 to 11 to have fun, develop fundamental skills, try a variety of sessions & lay the foundations for a lifelong love of sport. The sessions are delivered on a weekly basis, either after school or at weekends. By working in partnership with the County FA, qualified coaches deliver sessions locally to provide girls the opportunity to experience football for the first time in a fun & safe environment.
