Photo contributedIn an effort to retain their female soccer players and attract more girls to the sport, the Cobar Junior Soccer Club will be re-shuffling their grades this season.
Club president, Greg Mckervey, said they found a lot of teenage girls who were playing in the Seniors competition had been starting to lose interest in the sport.
Previously the club’s competition was made up of three grades—Minis (5-7 years), Mids
(8-12 years) and Seniors (13 years and older).
Greg said teenage girls playing in the Seniors grade were having to play against the likes of 20 year old “rough and tough men”.
He said as the girls were finding it hard to physically match the men on the field, they were beginning to lose interest in the sport.
The competition has now been configured into four grades with Minis unchanged, Mids will now be for players aged 8-11 years, the new Seniors competition is 12-15 years (and will also accept females up to age 16).
The new Opens division will be for players 16 years and up.
The committee hopes the reshuffle of the two older grades will help to retain their teenage players and attract more girls to the sport.
“We’re going to talk to the high school and see if we can get some interest from there,” Greg said.
“They have a very successful school girls soccer side and we’re hoping to tag into that.”
Greg was one of four Cobar Junior Soccer Club committee members who retained their positions at the club’s annual general meeting last Tuesday night.
Isaac Theakston was also returned (as vice president), Sarah Theakston as secretary and Jeremy Theakston will continue on in the treasurer’s role.
Michela Foster has stepped up from the general committee to assist Sarah in the secretary’s role.
Stephanie Hamilton has taken on the publicity officer’s position.
