This year marks 5 years since coaches in the girls section at BTFC signed up to be part of the FA’s new scheme to set up football schools just for girls. FA Wildcats is a scheme for girls aged 5 to 11 to try out football in a safe and secure well organised environment with FA licensed coaches.
We’ve come a long way at Bingham since those initial sessions in 2018 where we would get 6 or 7 girls coming along. There are now around 25 girls there every Saturday morning joining in the fun, making new friends and learning footballs skills and how to play ‘the beautiful game’. When we were one of the first activities to restart after lockdown we had over 50 girls coming along, but things have calmed down a little since then!
Our Wildcats sessions have become an integral part of our girls pathway at BTFC, introducing girls to football and many parents to coaching as the players move on from Wildcats into our younger junior teams. Since we began we’ve had over 200 girls try out football with us and around a hundred are now playing regularly for teams, mostly at Bingham but also elsewhere in Nottinghamshire. Girls and women make up a third of the 500+ players registered at BTFC now, something we are all extremely proud of. We were also the first recipient of the Nottinghamshire FA Inspiring the Future award in March 2022.
To mark the 5 year milestone we ran a special fun session at Butt Field and invited a few ex-Wildcats along too. Some of them had to dash off to a tournament before the photo call but over 40 girls were there on the day, enjoying the sunshine and the football (not to mention the cakes and sweets laid on for the occasion).
FA Wildcats @ BTFC runs on most Saturday mornings (weather permitting) throughout the year at 10:30. As it’s a pay-as-you-go operation at £3 a session there’s no financial commitment, the girls can come and give it a try and see how they like us. For more information visit our webpage here https://binghamtownfc.com/wildcats/ or come along and see us on Saturday.
