Moyola Ladies to benefit from SCORE project

MOYOLA Park Football Club was the venue for the launch of the Irish FA SCORE Pilot Project on Tuesday 19 April and local club Moyola Ladies was represented by coach Charlene Kenning.

The SCORE Pilot Project, funded through the UEFA Hat trick programme, is a unique initiative aimed at assisting women’s football clubs in Northern Ireland to establish links with their local primary and post primary schools.

In total 36 clubs are involved in the project which involves three core elements; firstly, each club nominates a coach to undertake a coach education course; secondly, the nominated coach then delivers 12 coaching sessions within primary and post primary schools; and lastly, the club endeavours to set up a junior girls’ team within their club. The ultimate aim of the project is to establish school – club links in order to encourage more girls to join local clubs.

Speaking at the launch Irish FA President Jim Shaw commented,

“This is a fantastic project and we are delighted to be working with the women’s clubs to help develop the female game in Northern Ireland. We are very fortunate to have received this funding from UEFA and I think it is testimony to the hard work being carried out in this area that we were awarded this money. It is a very exciting time in girls’ and women’s football in Northern Ireland and the association is working hard to help foster and nurture the game”

The Irish FA Women’s Domestic Football Manager Sara Booth added,

“We have a groundswell of participation within schools football in Northern Ireland and it now essential that we can work with the clubs to put structures in place to encourage these girls to play outside of the school environment. By providing coach education opportunities, bursaries to deliver coaching sessions and equipment we hope that we can arm the women’s clubs with the resources they desperately need to develop the game. The commitment being shown by the association is clearly evident tonight with the attendance of senior Irish FA officials at this launch, including Irish FA President Jim Shaw, Irish FA Technical Director Desi Curry and Irish FA Women’s Football Committee Chairman Roy Cathcart , and I would publicly like to thank them for their continued support in this area”.

Irish FA Women’s Football Committee Chairman Roy Cathcart closed the evening and remarked;

“Our girls’ and women’s teams continue to punch above their weight at international level with recent U15, U19 and senior successes. It is important that we assist our women’s clubs to ensure that local players are given the best opportunities to excel at international level and ultimately by getting more girls’ involved in the game we hope to achieve this. Special thanks to Moyola Park Football Club for use of their fantastic facilities for this launch”.

The next stage of the SCORE Pilot Project will involve the 36 SCORE Coaches going into their local primary and post primary schools to deliver free coaching sessions. If your school would be interested in having Charlene from Moyola Ladies deliver a free coaching session in your school please contact Irish FA Women’s Domestic Football Manager Sara Booth on 028 90684725 or [email protected]

Related topics: