Bella Shines on Premier League Kicks

One of the participants on our Premier League Kicks girls’ sessions, Bella, has been recognised for her amazing efforts as a volunteer coach. Bella has dedicated her spare time to coaching younger girls at our Wildcats sessions at Westfield and is finding the experience has really helped her growth.

“I’ve gained so much confidence with helping the younger girls, like setting out cones and running drills. It’s given me more responsibility and I just enjoy coming down and seeing the kids smiling every week. It’s great seeing the younger girls wanting to play football.”

Empower Women and Girls coach, Amy Page, notes that Bella’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

“Since we’ve had Bella volunteer at Wildcats, we’ve really seen her confidence develop. You can see it in the way she interacts with the girls as she’s really confident to call the group in and explain the practices. She’s got that experience to pass on to the girls and the knowledge she can share with them. Bella’s a great footballer, but when she’s speaking to the five-year-olds that attend the session, she’s able to put it in a language they can understand. It’s really beneficial for them.”

Bella says she owes her passion for football to her mum. “my role model is definitely my mum because she’s pushed me ever since I was little. I’ve played football with the boys and I never liked it and she’s always pushed me to keep going no matter what people say.”

On being a volunteer coach: “It just makes me feel proud and happy that young girls want to play football. It’s great that they’re saying they want to play and it doesn’t matter if they’re a girl or not.”

Our free Wildcats girls sessions (ages 5-11) are every Friday, 4-5pm at Leisure United Westfield (S20 8FA), followed by our free Premier League Kicks girls sessions (ages 8-16) that runs 5-6pm. For more information please email shannon.wells@sufc-community.co.uk.