Well after what seems like a lifetime we were back after the summer break, and it was so nice to see all the girls again, all 50 of them! First week back and we welcomed 4 new girls to try futsal for the first time, welcome Ania, Maja, Rusne and Aoife, we hope you had fun and hope to see you again very soon! Wow, season 8, can you believe it….

With it being the first week back, we just concentrated on getting the girls back into playing futsal, so no real coaching, just lots of matches and lots of smiles. We asked the girls to concentrate on the principles of the game, i.e. sole of the foot, recovery, playing behind and finishing as close to the goal as possible. That said, the standard of futsal was brilliant, with the girls looking like they hadn’t been away. The coaches can’t wait to see how much they can improve this season, but if this is the standard we are getting, then the future is going to be fantastic!

Players of the Week:

First Hour – Iris W – she has come back after the summer break and was a lot more physical, really putting herself about on the court and nearly scoring a fantastic goal, but for a good save from the keeper – top job Iris!

Second Hour – Bonnie-Shai – She worked so hard today, especially when she had the ball, driving forward at every opportunity. She also worked hard out of possession, and really helped her teammates – awesome Bonnie-Shai!

Third Hour – Imogen D – Another player who was right up for the challenge today, she loves a tackle and didn’t miss one all session – looking good Imogen!

Fourth Hour – Abbie D – Very impressive session from Abbie today, she covered pretty much all the court today and looks the player we know she is, top technique and attitude, the ladies are waiting for you Abbie!

Final Thoughts Of A Coach…

I must start this week by wishing the ladies in the recently announced England Futsal Women’s team the very best of luck for their World Cup qualifiers in Moldova in October. I am fortunate to know several of the squad and they will all be brilliant ambassadors for the first ever England Ladies futsal team – everyone at Bootham Futsal Club wishes you the absolute very best – go smash it!

Eight seasons, wow, what can I say! It is amazing to think that the club, that Suzy and I started with only 4 young ladies is still going and doing OK it seems. We have had some lows – Covid nearly closed the club, but like an absolute phoenix it rose to a much better place, to the amazing highs, the ladies team winning a national title, and we had 50 fans come and support them.

Of those first ever 4 ladies, 2 are still associated with the club. Freya is now training regularly with the ladies team and will make her debut in the very near future. Emily-Sue is now helping out with the little ones and never misses a week, she is a fantastic with the girls and both are a shinning example of what you get if you invest in youth. From myself and Suzy a huge and very heartfelt thank you!

So much to look forward to this season across all the age groups – we are entering 3 age groups, U12s, U14s & U15s in the West Riding Girls Futsal League, we have a team in the National Girls U16 Futsal League (TBC) and the ladies start the season with the aim of retaining their national trophy and pushing for promotion to Tier 1. On top of that I’m sure we will welcome many more girls to the club, host matches against various teams from across the region and you can catch all the smiles and tears here on the website. Thank you for following us across all our channels, what a season it is going to be, I simply can’t wait…

Coach Chris

A few images from today’s session