Developing female cricket is an important focus for West Coast Cricket. Development Officer, Tommy Coutts, explains how last December a consistent group of ten girls were playing alongside Year 5-8 boys’ cricket. Following feedback from the girls who expressed a desire for their own night, Coutts decided to create a designated female cricket evening.
“I got the Yeah! Girls programme up and running and moved sessions to the West Coast. As we are a smaller district, the first week we only had twelve Year 5-8 girls attend. During my superstar cricket sessions, I was seeing several girls join and suggested we open the female evening to those from Year 1 upwards. With help from West Coast Cricket President, Brendan Marshall and some fantastic parents such as Liz Hutt, our numbers exploded the second week with 25 girls attending. I split the session with half going to hard-ball and the other half staying with me to enjoy music, dancing, fun games and skills”.
Through word of mouth, the female cricket sessions grew once more. ‘‘Last Thursday it blew all our minds, I had 49 girls turn up. 22 went over to hard-ball and the rest stayed with me. Through the use of water balloons, music and some enthusiastic parents, I managed to keep the girls excited, smiling and happy to be there playing modified games”.
The feedback from parents and girls is that having a female only environment has helped them feel relaxed and start to build some confidence. Tommy is keen to provide more opportunities for girls to participate across the West Coast region. “For the next two Mondays, I am going to facilitate pop up girls only sessions in Hokitika to help reduce the barrier of travelling to Greymouth”.
Moving forward, Tommy is looking to build on this momentum by implementing girls only sessions for the duration of the season and providing opportunities for girls to participate in district festivals.
