The girls have got futsal fever

WITH the Matildas’ 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup performance still on the minds of many, coaches at Futsal Ballarat have noted a boom in enthusiastic young female players.

Director of operations Dermott Tebb said the amount of attendees taking part in their programs has “gone through the roof.”

“On the back of the World Cup, it’s gone from very limited to a lot of kids very, very quickly. We’ve had about 100 girls come in in the last three weeks,” he said.

“Before we’d have just over 100 girls for all of our programs and now we have 100 girls in a single come-and-try so it’s basically doubled in size.

“Population-wise, we reckon about one to two per cent of Ballarat play futsal, or go with someone who does, per week, so as a sport it’s growing astronomically.”

Mr Tebb said the influx of girls playing the game is changing how Futsal Ballarat delivers programs.

“We do programs for three-to-five-year-olds, boys and girls, and now we’re going to have dedicated women’s and girls’ nights on Monday nights,” he said.

“We’ll have competitions and training for women of all ages and abilities as well as a bit of a pathway and opportunities for girls to go to the next level and become a Matilda themselves.”

Brown Hill’s Jason Hekkema has been taking his daughter Holly to Futsal Ballarat’s come-and-try sessions for the past month, and said he’s been impressed by participants’ growth.

“The first session we went to had about six girls, and then it was 15, 16 the next week, and now the last few weeks it’s hard to even count how many there are,” he said.

“Watching the Matildas on TV and then having the opportunity to just have a go with Futsal Ballarat’s been great.

“Holly’s been meeting new people and coming home going, ‘When’s the next one?’

“It’s been good seeing her enjoying it. We went to a couple of Matildas games. She’s started naming the players which I don’t think I could’ve done at her age with the Socceroos.”

St Columba’s School grade one student Poppy started attending earlier this month September, and said it’s been a social outing each time.

“It’s been really fun,” she said. “My friends were talking about futsal and we started playing at school and they started going to this so I joined them.

“I’m really enjoying playing the game and doing the drills, and playing with my friends.”

Futsal Ballarat’s come-and try-sessions will recommence next school term with their regular competitions also set to commence in early October.