Hoping to kick-start girls football in the county

A brand new project to develop girls football in the county has kicked off in Stromness recently, leading to the formation of  a girls football club. Aimed at girls aged 12-16 who live in the West Mainland and who want to play competitive football, Strom-West Girls FC was officially formed in October and are led by local football coaches Dave MacPherson and Liz Coward.

Liz Coward explained: “There have been a lot of girls taking part in football at Stromness Academy who were keen to play more competitively.  Since there is little opportunity to do that through the high schools anymore, it was thought the time was right to start a girls’ football club.

“Since then we have had 8 weeks of training sessions attracting between 16-20 girls each week. In October we officially formed the club and now have 18 players sign for Strom-West Girls FC.”

The next step in the project is to establish the same kind of set up in Kirkwall covering the East Mainland allowing regular competitions between the two teams as well as competing against teams out with Orkney. It is planned that both clubs would run independently of each other and it is hoped that when the girls became of age, they would feed into the senior ladies team.

Dave MacPherson added: “Now that Strom-West Girls FC is up and running, it is vital to mirror that in Kirkwall with Kirk-East Girls FC being formed. With 20 girls already participating in the West Mainland, I am sure there has to be as many girl footballers in the Kirkwall and East Mainland area who would like the same opportunity.

“Women’s and girl’s football is the fastest growing sport in the world right now and we want to make sure that girls in Orkney, who want to play football, have the opportunity to be a part of that growth.”