By Nick Creely
Pakenham United has launched its very own ‘Soccer Mums’ initiative, aimed specifically for women to meet new people, have fun and learn basic football skills.
Soccer Mums, an initiative of VicHealth is a program in the Active Women and Girls for Health and Well-Being funding stream that is presented across Victoria by Football Victoria.
United hosted a free ‘Come and Try’ day on Tuesday 23 July at IYU Recreation Reserve, with 10 women showing their support in the pouring rain, as well as a project manager from Football Victoria. 14 women have currently enrolled for the program, which will run over five Tuesdays.
Kat Carmody, the current ladies coach at United and the female participation coordinator, said it was an exciting program designed to encourage mum’s to come along to give it a go in a friendly environment.
“The program caters for about 20 people per session, but it’s open to anyone, members of the club, and members of the local community, as well as friends and family of anyone in the south east area,” she said.
Kat – who has played soccer for over a decade – has found a home at United, and hopes other ladies can jump on board and join the club into the future. She said the growth in female participation since joining the club has grown substantially.
“I’ve played for over 10 years at various different levels, and I moved to the area and found a club to play for, and I joined this club at the end of my street, and we started with a seven-a-side team, and then progressed to an 11-a-side team,” she said.
“I then went on to have my baby this year, and took the season off to have my little girl and decided to take on the coaching role.”
She hopes that busy mums – who are perhaps looking for a way to engage with the community and focus on their mental and physical wellbeing – will benefit from the program.
“This program’s aimed at mums in particular that don’t have the time to commit to a full season, and training twice a week,” she said.
“So it’s looking at providing opportunities for mum’s to participate in some social networking and fitness.”
For more information on the VicHealth initiative – which seems to be growing each day – visit soccermums.com.au
