To celebrate our GO Soccer Mums (GSM) community, we're gathering stories from participants and sharing one per month with our wider football family. Today, Darlene Richardson from Sale United FC tells us why she loves the GSM program.
GO Soccer Mums is designed for women to play in a social and judgment-free environment. It's not just for mums but for all women from all walks of life. It doesn't matter if you've never kicked a ball before!
Darlene Richardson:
I absolutely love GO Soccer Mums. My role is different from that of the deliverer and participant. I am the person behind the scenes. The one that helped to set the program up, get it organised online for the ladies to register and promote it both on Facebook and in the local newspaper.
I physically cannot be at our club as I work in a very small remote town in the middle of the Northern Territory, on the edge of the Tanami Desert. But being able to still do everything remotely for the Sale United Football Club from here keeps me involved in football and importantly helps to push female football.
I am the club secretary and the GO Football Coordinator and although I am so far away, technology has given me the tools to be a very effective contributor to football.
A couple of hard-working ladies at our club, Laurel, Maddy and Anouk, along with myself started organising the GO Soccer Mums program late last year via online meetings with Elsa, Natalie and Georgie.
We worked hard to get this program up and running and at our inaugural program, we had 24 ladies register. We couldn’t have asked for a better response. Then Maddy entered the ladies into the GO Soccer Mums Gippsland Cup where she had an overwhelming response to participate and had to enter two teams.
They placed first and third. What a successful program, not just for winning the tournament but because the ladies are so keen and are clearly having so much fun. Our next GO Soccer Mums will begin in May.
Having this program is important to the growth of the game, the growth of our club and the inclusiveness of all females, no matter what level of skill or fitness they have. It also gives past players a place to continue playing once they have finished with the competitive side of the game.
I am so passionate about female football. Having been involved for thirty years now at a club and representative level, I have seen the growth of the sport in our area go from zero females to having junior and senior female teams, and now, a platform for mums and any ladies to give soccer a go or continue playing the sport they love. This is one program that will be prominent at our club from now on.