Girls at Wests
Girls make up a big proportion of junior players at Wests.
They are fully involved in our mixed grade teams and competitions (meaning boys and girls playing together in a team). Under NZ Football rules, girls are permitted to play down one age grade in mixed competitions if they choose. Some do, many don’t (choosing to play with their same age male peers and friends).
In addition to the involvement of girls in all mixed grade competitions and tournaments, Wests have for the last 2 years also had some additional “girls only” options and highlights including:
- Wests summer development/friendly “league” for all junior girls
- Several teams in the winter girls-only Sunday competition run by Capital Football
- A team entered in the summer girls-only Sunday competition run by Capital Football
- A girls-only team entered in several mixed grade interclub tournaments in 2010 and 2011
- A record number of girls-only teams across several grades at the inaugural Upper Hutt girls only interclub invitational tournament in February 2011. One of our Under 10 teams won their grade and became the first team/club to ever hold that trophy
- A girls-only Academy team has been run in 2010 and 2011, and a further girls-only development squad was added in 2011
- A number of older girls have trialled for or gained entry to Federation level representative or national teams. Some of the more recent examples of note are national representatives you may have seen mentioned in the papers - Emma Roulston and Tessa McPhearson. Or the Western Suburbs Junior Player of the Year for 2011, Katie Barrott.
There’s no doubt that you’ll see some future Football Ferns that had their junior years with Western Suburbs.