To celebrate International Women’s Day, Derby County Community Trust hosted their Biggest Ever Girls Football Session, which took place at Mickleover FC on Friday, 6th March.

This festival was centred around empowering young girls to coach and play football, and was co-designed and delivered by our Go Coach Young leaders from Lees Brook School.

The festival brought girls together who had never represented their school before, giving them the chance to learn and play competitive games in a safe environment and were joined by Derby County Women’s first team players, Georgia Stevens and Lucy Jones, who enjoyed playing alongside before hosting a Q&A session.

When asked how important it is to give young girls the opportunity to play football, Derby County Women’s striker, Georgia Stevens, replied: “Females in football have grown massively in recent years, even seeing women coaching is something brand new. I remember growing up being the only girl in my year at school who played football, so the idea of that being abnormal now is wild to me. The fact that girls don’t believe me when I tell them that there weren’t any girls-only football teams when I was their age just shows how far we have come.

It’s my first season as a Derby player, and I think I have engaged more with the local community here than I have across my whole career as a professional footballer. It’s things we see male players do time and time again, and they really do put the trust into us female players to be a representative.”

Followed by the Ewe’s goal keeper, Lucy Jones: “I think the event went very well, all of the girls have been getting involved and joining in, which is great to see. Most of them had never kicked a football before, so seeing them develop a love for the game is incredible. I think it’s very important for girls to have the opportunity to play football, it helps to grow the women’s game.”

The Trust would like to express it’s thanks to Mickleover FC for hosting the event and to Lees Brook School for providing fantastic role models for the new players.