U8devfestival

U8 Development Festivals Kick Off

Sarah Wood
A great experience for girls new in football

The first U8 Girls’ Development Festival took place this October at St George’s Park Graves with six teams and from around the county bringing along their young female players to play.

The event was played in fantastic spirits with the girls all able to play and express themselves whilst enjoying the game without the fear of failure. Despite the weather this didn’t prevent the girls from continuing to play with the last game of the festival continuing after the referee had blown their whistle for full time!

For some of the girls of Handsworth Junior Sporting Club, Bramley SunnysideJFC, Charnock Ridgeway Girls, Crosspool JFC Wildcats, Rotherham United Community Sports Trust Wildcats and Sheffield United Community Foundation Wildcats this was their first experience of match play football. Some of these players recently coming through the SSE Wildcats programme

“Today has been an amazing experience for the girls. Even the rain at the end did not dampen their smiles. For 4 of my 7 this was their ever match. I’m being inundated with text from parents telling me the girls are home talking to family members about what a great morning they’ve had. I’m already being asked when the next one is!” (Lee Cadman, Coach at Bramley Sunnyside)

Nathan, a parent and wet spectator on the morning, also added, “Despite the poor weather my daughter loved her first experience of playing in a team/competitive match and is still buzzing this evening. The Wildcats programme certainly has one little girl hooked on the game!”

For further information regarding our development festivals or the Wildcats programme please contact Ben Hardaker.