Parkwood Rangers FC: Ladies Team

Last Sunday the Olympic flame came to our home town of Bexley and on Friday the Olympics’ started in earnest with a spectacular opening ceremony, which as a Londoner I was proud to witness(on the telly).

Ten years ago the film Bend it Like Beckham inspired girls up and down the country to play football, ten years later the country has another opportunity to inspire the next generation of players as they can follow the progess of a ladies football team. P

Personally I believe a medal for team GB will be be best thing for our sport. I think it will give the women’s game more respectability and also for teams like us up and down the country their will be an increase of local interest.

Today we are holding a player registration day, we have asked 18 players to sign for us and although all have indicated they are interested we do need them to put pen to paper for the forthcoming season.

We are aware this is very competitive league thatwe play in with only one guaranteed place for promotion and two relegation places, we have build a squad that is capable to meet that demand over a season.

Every player offers individually different strengths and weakness one common denominator with all the players we have asked to sign, is they all have won competitions in the past and know what it takes to win things and still want to win things.

To support the player’s aspirations as I have said before we need to build a “culture of winning” this is not about winning at all costs, it about reviewing the team’s recent history and embracing achievement, reviewing playing staff , reviewing current practice and reviewing current facilities and then creating a vision and a plan to make improvements all areas.

I have been fortunate to meet former Olympians when we were invited to the Bexley Young Sports People Awards, and as they addressed the young sports people in the audience they all say a similar message that “success is a choice” as a sport person you have the choice to push yourself and work in training to do your best in competition. All the athletes’ dream of winning a medal at the Olympics, not all will, but all the athletes there have one thing in common - they all have put many years of training to get selected to go to the Olympics’.

The Olympic legacy can mean different things to different people, for us as a team its learning and understanding the dedication the athletes have to push to the next level.

Ten years ago, the team won a silver medal in the SELKENT Vase (under 10 girls) today we have progressed though the leagues to be in the position to play regional football this exceeded all expectations and is an achievement in own right.

For us now our team “Olympics medal” should be playing in the premier division and we have the “choice” Do we rest on our laurels and stay in this league? or do we put in the effort and money to make the improvements around the team set up and to try and reach the premier league one day?

If we do not ever achieve the ambition of playing in the premier league and but have put the effort in to try and get their, we can be like the Olympian past and present that did not win a medal,they can look in the mirror knowing they tried my best.

Having seen the players putting in the effort to improve their fitness levels I know what choice they have made already.

If all 18 players turn up today and put pen to paper we will be taking our first steps in the direction we want to take.

Have a good week
Andy.