The women’s football team in Lavender Hill has made a comeback after a hiatus in 2010, with the recruitment of women football players currently underway.
Mark Nicholson, a director from the Lavender Hill Sports and Recreation Foundation, said a women’s football team has started up once again this year.
“You know women’s sport is always on the low so I am trying to uplift women’s sport.
“Previously we had a women’s football team between 2008 and 2010 and then we had to stop but we started a football team again now in 2022.”
Nicholson said the Lavender Hill Football club has nine different divisions.
“We have junior footballers from under 8 to seniors. So we have nine different divisions. And I decided because of my daughter playing soccer and her sister playing for Spurs Ladies, I decided to start a women’s soccer team.
“As soon as I put the word out suddenly we found ourselves with 17 women wanting to play soccer. There will be more joining. Women’s sports need to be uplifted as well in our communities.”
He added that more women’s footballers are needed if they are willing to commit to the sport.
“We are definitely inviting more, the way we do it, we want committed women’s footballers, we know the times are tough as well.
“If they are in a stage of being unemployed and they think that they won’t be able to support themselves, they are most welcome to come.
“We try to support them as far and wide as we can, like giving them a meal before training and after training if they want to take a meal home. Because we also have a feeding kitchen here on this very field.”
Every day the feeding kitchen assists with meals for 300 children.
“So the ages of the women’s football team is between the ages of 10-years-old up to 52, which is the age of my wife, and she is also part of the football team.”
Nicholson says sport is a healer to many.
“For me football is a healer, sport is a healer.
“You know you will find a child being depressed coming to the sports field, and as soon as they pick up the soccer ball they just forget the stresses they have and that they are going through.
“But they have to go back to their homes you know, so what we do is, we do motivational speeches, we do life skills programmes with them. For us sports is definitely a healer and sports can take them to the next level, especially where there schoolwork is concerned. They come from school and go straight to the soccer ball and start kicking the ball, enjoying their football and that is also part of therapy.”
The women’ football practices takes place on the field in Blode Street or at the nearby Primary School.
“We are using Blode Street as our training facility so that we can actually draw more young females to come and join our Football Club.
“For the past few years that we’ve been doing our sports, we have been doing it in Lavender Hill, we are currently registered with the South Peninsula Local Football Association, we are playing in a structured league. The women will play in the regional women’s league which is a semi-professional league for them.”
With the growing team however there are more kits needed.
“One of the main things we need is actually a microbus or a minibus taxi for transportation purposes, we need soccer balls, we need soccer kits as well. We need training equipment for them.”
The Lavender Hill Football club currently consists of 212 members.
“Every second consecutive Saturday we will be playing away games so we need transport to try and take them to and from the game.”
- For more information on how to join the female football team in Lavender Hill or to assist with soccer kits contact Mark Nicholson at mark.soccer425@gmail.com
