By Dongyun Kwon
Having competed against each other, two U15 teams of Healesville Soccer Club finished up the season taking first and second place respectively.
Along with the great success of Healesville Senior Women and two U15 teams, Healesville Soccer Club is happy with not only the outstanding results of the teams but also the fact that they finally have set up a safe environment where women and girls can enjoy the sport.
Healesville Soccer Club vice president Leesa Riley said she was excited to see how successful the girls’ and women’s teams have gone.
“I’m also excited to see the friendships they’ve got out of the season and how much they’ve grown from a skills and confidence perspective,” she said.
“We’ve been really focused on thinking about it [how to build strong women and girls sports culture within the club], and we’ve been focused on pushing girls and women to participate and creating an environment that women and girls feel like want to come to and where the girls can feel camaraderie and friendships and they get to spend time together with girls from across the community.
“It’s an outside school environment where they get to find new friends and make lasting connections.”
Healesville Soccer Club is planning to host more events for both players’ physical and mental health as well as their skill development with the Change Our Game Community Activation Grants from Sport and Recreation Victoria.
The club has also focused on offering diverse opportunities for women and girls by supporting them to be referees and coaches.
U15 Flames took the throne
U15 Flames was two points ahead of U15 Rebels, the other Healesville team, and the two points difference was big enough to decide the winner of the gold medal.
The winning team was coached by Glen Stevenson who took over the position from the last year’s coach.
Stevenson said when the season started, he was concerned about if the players could gel together as the team consisted of different age groups from 11 to 16, with an average age of 12.8 years.
“Throughout the season, they got to know each other and did really well,” he said.
Flames went through hard times at the beginning of the season as they needed more time to understand each other’s playing style and harmonise in one team.
They lost four games in the first nine games.
The coach said they had to work on a few things and positions for certain players at the beginning.
“The start of the year probably had a little bit of a lack of belief in what they could do,” Stevenson said.
“Like I said, we had a large gap between our youngest and oldest players, and it was just a matter of trying to build the confidence in the girls.
“Once everyone knew what their role was, we started to put it all together.”
Once they got onto the winning momentum, everything went smoothly for the team and they ended the season with winning the last nine games in a row, which secured their throne.
The girls got more comfortable with the 4-2-3-1 formation as they started to understand each other’s movements more.
Before the beginning of the season, Stevenson was worried about the lack of players for the team.
In the end, the team had about 15 girls playing throughout the season.
“The focus for this season was mainly participation to begin with because we have a lot of girls in the side that were reluctant to play,” the coach said.
“The focus for the team, as far as the games went on, was two-touch passing and communication.”
In the pre-season, the team had one training session, providing girls with the opportunity to get familiar with the soccer ball while playing rondo.
During the season, the Flames sometimes trained with the senior women of the same club and some of the girls grabbed the chance to experience senior football.
Seven girls of the Flames played for Healesville Senior Women Reds with about five of them being regular.
“Because I coached the reserves women as well, I was starting to get a lot of the senior players to come and train with us on a Thursday night to help out,” Stevenson said.
“The women in the Reds were great and they took the girls and mentored them.”
There were a couple of games that helped the Flames be equipped with the winning mentality.
One was the away game against Knox when they could firsthand check out the outcomes of their training.
“One game in particular we played at the time, we were third on the ladder, and we played Knox at Knox, who was second on the ladder, and we didn’t have any players on the bench because we only had the 11 for the day,” the coach said.
“It rained all day and was about probably five degrees. It was really cold and wet. And we beat them.
“It was a great game where the girls started to see what we’ve been trying at each of the training sessions.”
The other one was when they won the Healesville derby against the Rebels.
“We beat them 1:0,” Stevenson said.
“They were still on top on the ladder by one point, but it meant we were in striking range.
“Once again, the girls started to believe in themselves that they could do it and it probably put a bit of pressure on the other Healesville side.”
Stevenson had two daughters and both have been involved in soccer.
One of his daughters played for the Flames this season.
As a father of two daughters who play soccer and a coach who’s been in girls’ soccer for about 10 years, Stevenson said soccer is an approachable sport for girls.
“For girls, soccer ideally is probably the most natural of the team sports. Out of the cricket, football and soccer, it’s a game that girls find more natural,” he said.
“There’s a good environment, and it’s not a high contact sport.
“The main thing I love about it is compared to boys, girls play with a smile most of the time.”
U15 Rebels still smiled after getting runners-up
Despite the result of runners-up, giving the crown to their derby rival Flames, the Healesville U15 Rebels had a fantastic season.
The team focused on a passing game along with building confidence.
Tony Mann has coached the Rebels for two years and he is proud of the team’s achievement this season.
“I was really impressed with how each of the individual players grew over the season in both ability and confidence,” he said.
“We are so proud of how well both Flames and Rebels did this year.
“They challenged each other to be better, it was a really positive element for us to be in the same league.”
The Flames wrapped up the season with 12 wins, four losses and 36 points while the Rebels with 10 wins, four draws, two losses and 34 points.
The two teams were the only teams who gained more than 30 points in the U15 Girls Division 1.
The Rebels had 12 players and played a 3-5-2 formation.
“We trained regularly once a week and worked on what we want to develop and grow and to continue to push the girls to play their best,” Mann said.
“I really worked with the team to make sure they were extremely dedicated and worked extremely hard to play well and support each other.
“We were often short on players, so we didn’t always have a full team because of sickness and people being away, which was always a bit of a challenge.”
Six girls out of 12 players from the Rebels were selected to represent two teams that Victoria got involved in at the Christian Football Federation Association National which took place between 4 and 7 October.
“It’s fantastic and an amazing achievement that half of my players are going to play in the national competition,” the coach said.
“The three of them are playing in the Victorian nationals team and the other three are playing in a united national team between Western Australia and Victoria.”
Mann has been coaching different teams of the Healesville Soccer Club for a few years.
He said seeing such growth in women’s soccer in Healesville has been amazing.
“It’s been fantastic to see women’s and girls’ soccer grow so much in Healesville,” the coach said.
“The positive and supportive culture that Healesville Soccer Club has been developing over the last few years.”
