Shetland Women's FC

We’re having a final training game ahead of the InterCounty this coming weekend, game is Tuesday 17th August, 6pm at Clickimin Hockey Park.  This will likely be the last chance of a game before yet another season comes to an end, so please dig out the boots and get yourself along!

Graeme Sutherland, Scottish FA North Region Manager, is coming up to Shetland in August and had kindly agreed to do a training session for us. Thursday 12th August from 2pm – 3:30pm at Gilbertson Park, those of you who have been at one of Graeme’s sessions in the past will know that he delivers a very good session that’s great fun, this is completely free of charge and I’ll bring all the fitba’s and what not.

We’re having a friendly game this Tuesday (10th August) 6pm at Clickimin Hockey Park.  It’s Shetland Ladies v Shetland Girls and should be a good fun run about to get you back into it again.

Even if you’re not able to make the InterCounty we’d really appreciate it if you could make the effort to come to this game, there’s no such thing as too many players and everyone will get a game.

It’s that time of year again, this years InterCounty is in Orkney on Saturday 21st August, there will be an ‘A’ and ‘B’ squads selected for this, due to accommodation issues in Orkney there will only be places for 24 players, 12 ‘A’ and 12 ‘B’. The teams will travel down on the Friday boat and back on the Saturday boat.
Training is every Sunday at Clickimin Hockey Park from 6pm until 15th August with two additional sessions on Tuesday 10th August and Tuesday 17th August again at Clickimin Hockey Park from 6pm.
A good attendance is requested as we’ve played very little fitba this year and we want to maintain our 100% record over Orkney!

Shetland Women’s FC are having a football open day on Saturday 8th May from 12 noon until 4pm at Gilbertson Park, this will be 7-a-side games across the pitch. Come as a team or as individuals and we’ll get you into a team, there will be games going on all afternoon so please feel free to come along whenever you can manage.

There will also be the opportunity to give your views on how Women’s football should progress. The current proposal is to start playing league football the following weekend with games being played 3pm on Sundays and it would be great to have four teams so that each team would have a game every week.

We’re really keen to hear your views on how things should progress i.e. do we continue to play as Delting, Whitedale, Thistle, etc. or do we allocate players to geographical areas i.e. Isles, North, Westside, Lerwick, etc. Or maybe you have another suggestion? If so come along and let us ken.

Now that the lighter nights are here outdoor training is on every Sunday from 5:30pm at Clickimin Kick About Area, this is open to everyone and not just those involved in the Scottish Cup game.
We are going to go ahead with some local football this season, so coming along to these training sessions will help make the first game of the season a bit less of a shock to the system.

Outdoor training is starting again tonight (Sunday 14th March) 6pm – 8pm at Clickimin North Pitch £3.00 per player, a good turnout is requested.

Shetland Women’s Football Club is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a grant of £4696 from Awards for All Scotland to develop girls’ football in Shetland. With this grant we’ve bought footballs, training equipment, a new football strip, training wear and booked the Gilbertson Park Games hall for training sessions. The timetable for these sessions is: beginning Monday 8th Feb 6 – 7pm and Wednesday 10th Feb 6 – 7pm then every Monday and Wednesday until the last session on Wednesday 28th April.
These sessions will be free, will be open to any girls under 18 and are open to all abilities, so it doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced player or have never kicked a ball in your life. The sessions will be led by fully qualified coaches and there will always be a female member of the coaching team there, parents/carers are of course very welcome to come along.

Currently younger girls who are interested in football have to join in with the boys, which is ok at under 8/10’s but when they get to the 12’s the girls seem to drop out. The Women’s football here is aimed at over 14’s/adults and it can be a bit intimidating for younger players to join an existing adult setup, so we’re looking to bridge the gap here and give younger players a chance to develop their skills and gain a bit of experience with their peer group before joining the adult football.

There’s a couple of things in the pipeline for the players to aim for, one is that Deeside U15 Girls are coming up in July so we would be looking to form a Shetland U16 Girls team to play them and we’re also exploring the possibility of having a Junior Intercounty in August/September?
Now there’s little point in having all this shiny new equipment if there’s no one to use it! So please could you pass the word to your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, sisters, cousins, friends or whoever you can think of to come along and give football a go? They don’t need to have aspirations to make the Shetland team, if they just want a fun kick-about with their mates then that’s fine with us.

Remember these sessions are free and all players need to bring is their own personal playing kit.

Shetland have been invited to send a Girls Under 16′s team (girls born on or after 1st January 1993) to the Orkney Football Festival on 1st and 2nd August 2009. We have an initial training session at Brae Astro Turf pitch on Saturday 21st March from 11am – 1pm, further sessions will be arranged after the holidays. All under 16 girls are welcome to come along, these sessions are free all equipment will be supplied and all you need to bring is your own personal playing equipment. These sessions will be led by SWFC Development Coach John Ward

Graeme Sutherland, SFA North Regional Manager and Rod Houston, Manager of the Highland Football Academy are coming up to Shetland this weekend (3rd/4th May) to deliver some coaching courses and to work with some specific age groups, they have kindly agreed to run a session for the women players:

Date:- Saturday 3rd May

Time:- 5pm – 6:30pm

Venue:- Clickinin rugby park/kickabout area

This is free and is open to all female players regardless of ability, so a good turn out is requested to ensure that we benefit from these experienced coaches in the future.

See you all on Saturday…