More teenage girls in New Brunswick are taking up football.
The Greater Moncton Football Association Varsity girls program tripled increasing from 26 to 79 girls this season.
Coach Joel Irvine says they increased school promotion and marketing, “In the fall, we did a professional photography shoot with five different girls from five different schools that were part of the Varsity Girls Stingrays provincial championship team with the idea that we would promote it in the schools. If each school had enough girls to form a team, we would have GMFA teams that were named after the high school names,”
Last year, Football New Brunswick had a Varsity girls’ team under each minor Association, with one in Moncton, one in Saint John and one in Fredericton.
This season, that has grown to four in Greater Moncton, two in Saint John and one in Fredericton, and Irvine says the hope is next year to increase that to ten if possible.
“From my perspective, I think you have to encourage the girls to realize that they’re capable of doing anything. I think if you give girls an opportunity to play a sport that’s never been offered before and encourage them to try it, that’s a positive start. I think once they get involved with it, and they start to play it, they realize what a wonderful experience it is, and it can lead to so many other things. There’s zero reason you can’t play football, you’re capable, you’re athletic, and there’s zero reason you can’t succeed,” Irvine states.
He feels eventually the NBIAA will have to consider the opportunity to have girls’ high school football teams under their umbrella as well, “If it continues to grow to the level it is. Based on today’s society and giving everybody an equal opportunity, regardless of sex or gender, eventually if there’s that much demand there then there very well could be a demand for a high school football league for girls. I don’t think it’s next year, but I think in time it could happen,” Irvine says.
The four Under 18 Varsity Girls teams in Greater Moncton are the GMFA Trojans, GMFA Knights, GMFA Vedettes and GMFA Stingrays.
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