Inclusive club looking for players

THE Vic Park Vultures are creating an inclusive women’s soccer team for the upcoming season and the community is invited to get involved.

Experienced or new female players are invited to join the team and registration fees will be partially subsided by the club.

Pre-season training is currently on twice a week and the season begins in April with training on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Karishma Wijeyesinghe joined the Vultures with her daughter last year and she said they have loved the experience for its physical and social benefits.

“My daughter and I both joined… we joined just to try a new sport, do something together, improve our fitness and develop new skills,” she said.

“We came in without any prior football experience and at our time at Vic Park we’ve really loved the development of ourselves and loved being part of the club.

“Women’s football in Ballarat is so good in that we’ve met quite a few lovely players from other teams as well.”

Last year was the first time the club had a female team in five years and president Will Cousens said one of his goals was to make the club female friendly.

“It is important, especially as the leader of a community organisation to be incredibly inclusive as the world is diverse, Ballarat is diverse,” he said.

“I think females sometimes may feel that they are just given netball as an alternative during winter, and I like that there is some variety.

“Football offers women and girls that variation.”

Wijeyesinghe said the club is a welcoming environment and encouraged women of all ages and experience levels to join.

“It’s a combination of players that might be relatively new to the sport and experienced players as well, and all ages and abilities,” she said.

“I think the club is really encouraging of being open and welcoming to players of all abilities and we’re sort of developing our skills together and learning to play the game together.

“What I love about the [club] is it’s committed to developing male and female player from a young age.”