WOMEN’S and girls’ football in Frome is on the up following the successes of the Lionesses, with Frome Town United saying they’ve had to hire new coaches to deal with the increased interest.
Ben Bollard, manager of Frome Town Women and head of girls’ football at Frome Town United, says that interest in women’s and girls’ football has increased significantly in recent years with the club now having over 100 girls playing at Frome Town United.
It comes off the back of England Women becoming Champions of Europe last year and reaching the semi finals of the World Cup, now taking place in Australia (Frome Times goes to press as the Lionesses take on the hosts on Wednesday morning).
“Things have definitely continued to grow steadily over the last year,” said Ben. “We have over 100 girls playing junior football at Frome Town United now, every week and are trying to keep up with the demand by taking on more coaches to support.
“The women’s team remains healthy and is also growing and has attracted players from across the region, as well as locally, to come and train with us. Our core squad for this season will be 20 players, an increase on 18 last year, with 16 of those 20 living locally.”
Ben says there is still a direct pathway for children to rise through the ranks to adult football in the town as Frome Town United acts as a feeder club to Frome Town FC. He explained, “We are looking to bring more of the current Frome Town United Under 16s team into the women’s team this season. Some of them have already been training with us and fitting into the squad really well. So we have a healthy pipeline of local players feeding into our senior women’s team.
“Our women’s team are now benefitting from an increase in those wanting to sponsor and support the team financially, making a huge difference to how we can support the players and run the club with a brand-new kit. Frome Town United have also generously provided brand new match balls for the women’s team.
“The women’s team ran a ‘train with the team’ event back in March, to celebrate International Women’s Day, for which we had 90 women and girls come and train with the team for an hour on Selwood 3G. We will be looking to repeat the event again this season.
“We have more people than ever coming to watch the women’s team play. These are fantastic community events, still free to watch at Badger’s Hill, the home of Frome FC, and last March we had over 250 supporters come and watch out County Cup semi-final vs Frampton Rangers.
“Social media profile for women’s team and girls’ football keeps rising as well, with regular weekly posts for the women’s team on Frome Town FC social media and more for the girls at Frome Town United. We’ve also had myself and players from the women’s team on local radio, talking about how much things are growing.
“We are always open to new players coming, at any age, so anyone who is interested should get in touch. We have a small waiting list on our junior teams at the moment while we sort out more coaching support but are taking new players at most age groups from September. Also, we are always on the lookout for anyone who wants to come and help out coaching! The women’s team is also completely volunteer-run and are always looking for more volunteers to help run the club and to help us on match days.”
For more information on the Frome Town women’s team follow Frome Town on Facebook and keep an eye out for their fixtures – Ben is encouraging everyone to come out and support their upcoming home games.
