Lacking some girl power
It seems the Wakatipu could be lacking a bit of girl power when it comes to some traditionally male-dominated sports, but there are moves afoot to rectify that.
Primary-age girls playing rugby locally have dropped off markedly since 2018 and there’s a push to attract more girls into football, with cricket numbers slowly increasing each season.
Coaching Solutions director Emma Campbell says numbers dropped from about 60 girls playing rugby in 2018 to 30 last year and about 18 from the basin this year. Just 10 girls play among the 200 boys for Wakatipu Rugby Club with eight girls playing among Arrowtown’s 100 junior boys.
“We worked really hard, but we lost the drivers of the junior girls’ programme,” Campbell says. She’d like to see more regional support for junior girls’ development from the Otago Rugby Union too. “The 30 junior girls we had last year were fed into the Wakatipu High School teams so the school had a senior and junior team.”
However, fewer girls this year means the school combines with Mount Aspiring College. Four Wakatipu senior girls made the Under 16 Otago Country representative team.
There are some proactive dads out there though, some who say their daughters would be keen but want to play with other girls.
“Girls are keen to play touch rugby, but it’s up to us to get them through to Rippa Rugby in the schools then transferring to tackle,” Craig Anderson, of Wakatipu Rugby Club, says. “There’s currently no competition for them in Central Otago.”
The club has 10 girls Under 9 in 217 junior players. Assistance wasn’t forthcoming this season but the club hopes to start a girls’ competition itself next year.
Southern Football officials have recognised that junior girls numbers are very low in the Wakatipu and recently hired Campbell to help boost female participation.
The NZ Football-supported Fantails programme, which Campbell has been promoting in local schools, kicks off today (Tuesday, 5 September) offering a fun environment in which to learn football skills on the wave of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Girls as young as four are enrolling with the extra funding provided after the success of the World Cup to help get young girls into the game.
Local club officials are expecting junior girls numbers to grow next season after huge interest in that event.
In an added boost to attract young girls the Queenstown Women’s Premiers won the Southern Football League recently, and some of these senior players will act as role models to the Fantails.
There’s at least one rising young female starlet in the wings with eight-year-old Eva Turnbull from Shotover Primary already turning heads on the field.
Queenstown Associated Football Club president Simon Couldstone says in contrast, the Wanaka club is believed to have almost 100 junior girls currently registered.
“They’ve just been really organised over the last few years. Queenstown can learn from them and put programmes like Fantails in place,” he says. Queenstown has 300 youth members, only 19 girls. “Our goal is to get to 50 or 100.”
Cricket’s faring much better with finally enough to form an all girls’ team and not play with boys. New recruits start with soft ball programmes from five until nine then hard ball, occasionally playing in Alexandra or Wanaka. “We have three hard ball teams, plus a Wakatipu High School team, and a soft ball team, totalling about 50 girls with 25 to 30 percent of our junior membership girls which isn’t bad,” Campbell says.
She’d love to see junior girls’ cricket grow regionally with only one Alexandra all girls team and a few girls scattered among the other boys’ teams.
Volunteers and parents work hard and she’d like to see some of the umbrella associations step in to help with junior development.
“It’s critical to give them these sporting opportunities when they’re young and offer alternatives.”
Local junior girls’ football and cricket coach Scott Julian says it’s important for some families that games don’t clash with netball, and adding Sundays or weeknights can be a big commitment for parents. There’s some amazing work being done locally to encourage young girls but there’s a definite need for girls’ competitions at various age-group levels in all codes, he says.
“Football has achieved this at Under 7-8 level with the first ever all girls competition - Queenstown, Wanaka, Cromwell and Alexandra all fielding teams.”
Fantails starts Tuesday, 5 September, 3.30pm – Queenstown Events Centre. To register email Emma on emma@coaching-solutions.co.nz
