Vale Girls Still Football Crazy, Football Mad

Almost 4 years ago, Vale Ladies and Girls were one of the first Sporting Snapshot stories offered by Sport Wales as a real life example of how individuals were making community sport work in Wales.

Now, during the week that has seen the launch of our new community sport website, and as the sector looks ahead to achieving an ambitious future we’ve caught up with Vale Ladies Chairman Luke Williams, to recap on the recipe to the club’s continued success.

Setup in April 2012 from a Sport Wales Community Chest grant, we’re proud to say that the Vale Ladies & Girls Football Club has quickly become a real success story in Wales.

We may only have a short history, but in our brief 4 years, the club has become the largest female setup in Wales with over 230 players from the Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff area.  This is more than we had ever even imagined back in the starter days, but we’ve worked hard to get there!

U14s Cup Winners

We’ve also seen our fair share of success on the pitch in recent times.  The Under 14 girls won the South Wales FA Cup in March 2016 and we have 7 players representing Wales at the Bob Docherty Home Nations Tournament taking place in April.

The club has achieved FAW Silver Accreditation status in 2015 as well as gaining the South Wales ‘Grassroots Impact Award 2015’

When being asked about how we got to where we are, I’ve got to say that all the hard work put in place developing community links is starting to pay off.  It is without doubt that our rapid rise was established by strong community links with local schools.  We offered free taster sessions, festivals, school leagues and coaching sessions in the local area and it’s all paid off.

Since our launch we’ve delivered well over 250 school sessions attracting more than 5,000 attendances which has helped us develop into a model club for others to follow in Wales.

We also have a great team of coaches and volunteers that have helped us get to this stage, playing a huge role in our overall success and also in the personal successes of so many of our players – on home ground and an international stage.

Welsh representatives

I think we still have to remember that the club is only young and we’re not going to stop here.  There are now exciting plans to further develop our female section in the coming years and the 2016/17 season will see us merge with former Welsh League champions, Barry Town United.

This move will enable the club to compete at the highest level in Women’s football in Wales over the coming years as well as offering the very best facilities for our junior players to develop at the excellent Jenner Park Stadium.

It’s very much onwards and upwards for us at Vale Ladies and Girls Football Club!

Top 3 tips to take from Vale Ladies

• Create Strong links within your local community – schools and other clubs are a great place to start
• Make sure you’ve got the workforce to support you grow – volunteers and qualified coaches are essential
• Be flexible when looking to the future – Vale Ladies will be merging with Barry Town to give their players the best opportunities for progression.

For more tools and resources to support community sport clubs, visit www.ourambitiousjourney.sport.wales