e-bulletin - Exmouth Community College

E-BULLETIN
JANUARY 2013
WELCOME TO THE FIRST
EDITION OF THE WOMEN’S
FOOTBALL NEWSLETTER.
The recent advancements in the women’s game in Great
Britain illustrate a key strategy strand in the on-going
development of our sport and stand as testament to
a huge amount of hard work and commitment from a
breadth of people.
The education system, inclusive of schools, colleges and
universities, offers a tremendous platform for both the
growth and development of the women’s game. The
building of a critical mass of players and coaches allied
to the facilities, research opportunities and wider human
capital that the sector can provide, will be crucial to
underpinning this growth and development.
I look forward to continuing work with Dr Zehndorfer
and a range of partners to support women’s football in
Great Britain.
Andy Fuller
BAFA Director for Student Football
(universities, colleges and schools).
2012: AN HISTORIC YEAR
FOR WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
WHAT’S IN
THIS ISSUE?
2012 has been a historic year for women’s football, with highlights
including the inaugural national student tackle championships, the
development of new teams and the creation of a fledgling national
women’s squad. But maintaining momentum is critical. It is crucial
that we continue to prioritise the best interests of our athletes and
coaches in the development of a sport in such a way that is both
sustainable and competitive.
January’s e-bulletin features a look back at key milestones for the
sport in 2012, game-day reports from the last month’s activities
including the Hertfordshire and Exmouth 5v5 flag championships,
and an interview with Jim Messenger, the Head Coach of the Great
Britain Student Programme. Also included are dates for your
diaries for 2013 and news and information about the current status
of women’s football in Great Britain.
It is a real honour to be involved in such a great sport and to see so
many positive developments in both the men’s and women’s game.
I would like to thank everyone involved in making our inaugural year
a success and hope that you enjoy Issue 1 of our new e-bulletin.
If you are interested in finding out more or starting up a women’s
team, please contact Elesa Zehndorfer at [email protected]
Dr. Elesa Zehndorfer ([email protected])
If you have any team news or updates for December/
January, please forward them to Beccy Small at beccy.small@
britishamericanfootball.org
BAFA Universities Head of Women’s Football Development
IFAF Secretary
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MEET THE TEAM
MEET THE TEAM
ANDY FULLER
LYDIA DU BUISSON
Andy Fuller is a Director of the British American Football Association
with responsibility for co-ordinating development across the
education sector. Andy currently works with IFAF on student football
development and is a former employee of the National Football
League.
Lydia began working with football in 1992 when she enrolled at Texas
A&M University for her undergraduate degree. She joined the football
team as a student equipment manager. Four years into her role, Lydia
received a football letter, becoming the first female in 120 years of
school history to achieve this honour. After completion of a Bachelor’s
& Master’s degree in Sport Management (’96 & ’99), Lydia moved to
L.A., California. There she worked in television covering sports and
eventually becoming a sports and news anchor & reporter for a cable
news television station in Palmdale, California. She also worked in
radio as a color commentator for the Junior College football team in
that area. Preparing her with the football knowledge necessary to do
these things can be credited to her high school coaching experiences
at Cleveland High School in Reseda, California. Lydia served as the
Junior Varsity Defensive Coordinator for one year and was promoted
to Varsity the following two seasons to coach Linebackers/Punters/
Kickers before having to leave coaching to focus on the television
career and ultimately, her job in academia. Lydia played two seasons
of Linebacker and special teams for teams in both Los Angeles,
California and Houston, Texas. Currently Lydia stays involved with
football by serving with the coaches’ headset crew at Texas A&M
University. Though it has been several years since she has coached, it
is her greatest hope to return to the field when the timing is right and
the opportunity arises again.
DR. ELESA ZEHNDORFER
Elesa is currently the General Secretary of IFAF, having previously
been appointed as a Vice President in 2009. She has worked with
the BUAFL since 2006, first as Head of Research and then as Head
of Women’s Football Development. Elesa holds a PhD in Sports
Management from Loughborough University. She is passionate
about providing opportunities for women to play football in the UK,
and to play a meaningful role in helping the men’s and women’s sport
to grow nationally and internationally.
JIM MESSENGER
Jim Messenger is one of the most successful and well respected
coaches in British American football. He has coached at all levels of
the game over a 25 year period winning many titles and accolades.
Most recently, he led the University of Hertfordshire Hurricanes to
their fifth BUAFL National Championship in March 2012. Jim has
served time as a director of BAFA, the national governing body of
British American football, and as president of the British American
Football Coaches Association. He was formerly the Vice Chairman
of the IFAF Technical Committee and has represented BAFA at
numerous international conferences. Jim has recently been appointed
as the Head Coach of the fledgling GB Women’s Tackle Football
Team. Outside of football, Jim is a sports development professional
working with the Essex County Sports Partnership.
SAM RAPOPORT
Samantha Rapoport worked at the NFL headquarters in New
York City from 2003-2010 in the Marketing, NFL Player Personnel
and Youth Football departments. Sam was the winner of the NFL
Commissioner’s Award for her creation of the NFL Girls Flag Football
Leadership Program that fosters football participation among girls
across the USA. In the fall of 2010, she accepted a position as Senior
Manager of Female and Flag Football Development at USA Football
where she currently oversees all flag football development both
domestic and international, as well as girls and female involvement
in football. Rapoport has played football since the age of 14 both at
the domestic and international levels and contact and non-contact
forms. In 2002, Rapoport was the starting quarterback for the
Montreal Blitz; the first ever female tackle football team in Canada.
REBECCA SMALL
Beccy Small is a graduate from the University of Hertfordshire and
plays for the reigning Women’s Flag and Tackle Football Champions,
The Hertfordshire Tornadoes. As a former Sports Studies student at
UH, Beccy graduated with a First Class (Hons) and went on to study
for an MSc by Research based on stereotypes and gender issues
in sport. Alongside her studies, Beccy was the Head Coach of the
University’s National Champion cheerleading team for three years,
competing in the UK, Italy, Spain and the USA and is also a Level 1
Assistant American Football Coach. Currently working as a Sports
Development Officer for the Herts Sports Partnership, Beccy is
passionate about the growth and development of women’s football
in the UK.
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E-BULLETIN
HISTORY OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
Lauren is pictured with legendary
players from the NFL’s Tampa Bay
Buccaneers and Chicago Bears
Photo c/o D Shopland.
THE HISTORY OF
WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
IN GREAT BRITAIN
Female participation in student football is something which dates
back a number of years. A small number of women have, each
season, appeared on university team rosters.
Until very recently however, there had never been the concerted
effort to create the critical mass necessary across a number of
institutions for a women’s competition.
“2010/11 was a critical season” says Dr Elesa Zehndorfer, BAFA
Universities Head of Women’s Football “A varsity flag game between
Warwick and Coventry heralded the start of formal competition
and we received a series of emails from people whose interest and
commitment suggested that there was sufficient momentum to
enact a part of a strategy that we had been working upon for tackle
football.”
BAFA to discuss ways in which she could use her journalistic skills
to promote and develop the sport, and Lauren Hackney from
Southampton University drove forward with the idea of a women’s
tackle competition. Both Rhianna and Lauren, with financial support
from the Governing Body, were instrumental in establishing contact
teams at their respective universities and together with a team
emerging from the football hotbed of Hertfordshire University the
three contested the inaugural women’s tackle event in the summer
of 2012.
Since then a Great Britain student programme has been launched,
further teams have been established, and new competitions held.
“There is a long way to go” says Andy Fuller, BAFA Director for
Student Football “but the future is very bright for the women’s game.”
The emails came from two people based on the South Coast.
Rhianna Dawes, a student from Portsmouth University, contacted
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2012 WINTER EVENTS
Photo c/o Ree Dawes
HERTFORDSHIRE
TORNADOES CROWNED
AS BUAFL WOMEN’S FLAG
FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS 2012
Hertfordshire Tornadoes have been crowned as BUAFL Women’s Flag
Football Champions 2012
A total of five women’s teams took part in the BUAFL national championship
in Hertfordshire on December 1 with the hometown Tornadoes emerging
victorious with a perfect record of four wins out of four in the round-robin
competition. Their victory sees them add the Flag title to their 5 on 5 tackle
crown.
Competing in their first tournament, Royal Holloway recorded three wins
and one loss and were runners-up. Royal Holloway also provided the
tournament Most Valuable Player in Calyx Schentrup. The tournament
was not decided until the final game of the day between undefeated
Hertfordshire and Royal Holloway. After falling behind early, Herts fought
back to win 18-13 in the decisive game of the day.
Head of Women’s Football Dr Elesa Zehndorfer said: “I am delighted to
see the further development of the women’s game through this national
tournament in Hertfordshire and its sister event in Exmouth. I was very
pleased by the standard of play from all competing teams and would like
to congratulate all those involved.”
Great Britain Women’s Team Head Coach Jim Messenger added: “I would
like to offer my congratulations to all the teams involved. They are all
winners and can feel very proud for making women’s football happen...”
RESULTS
Game 1 - Royal Holloway 14 - 12 Warwick
Game 2 - Hertfordshire 24 - 0 Southampton
Game 3 - Hertfordshire 27 - 0 Portsmouth
Game 4 - Southampton 6 - 12 Warwick
Game 5 - Southampton 6 - 19 Royal Holloway
Game 6 - Warwick 26 - 6 Portsmouth
Game 7 - Warwick 6 - 27 Hertfordshire
Game 8 - Portsmouth 14 - 26 Royal Holloway
Game 9 - Portsmouth 6 - 14 Southampton
Game 10 - Royal Holloway 13 - 18 Hertfordshire
EXMOUTH RAPTORS’
NARROW DEFEAT
AGAINST UNI. OF
PLYMOUTH BOLTS
On Saturday 1st December Exmouth Community College
hosted its first official BAFA student competition. The
Sport England funded Exmouth Raptors took on the
University of Plymouth Bolts in a three game shoot-out.
The final winner was decided on cumulative points from
the three games, a system which saw the Bolts take the
tournament by the narrowest of margins of 36 – 34.
“I am so incredibly proud of these girls” Coach Rooksby of
the Raptors stated. “This Raptor team is only young and
yet again they fearlessly take on a team much older than
themselves! I can’t wait for the time when the girls will face
their own age group as the experience they are gaining is
invaluable. In the tournament they played at an impressive
technical level. They were a real credit to us!”.
RESULTS
Game 1 - Raptors 6 - 6 Bolts
Game 2 - Raptors 6 - 12 Bolts
Game 3 - Raptors 22 - 18 Bolts
Dr Elesa Zehndorfer praised the efforts of both programs:
“The Plymouth Bolts and the Exmouth Raptors have
started the ball rolling for the women’s game in the South
West. We look forward to working with both programmes
to see how we can capacity build the women’s game in
the region”.
Photo c/o Ree Dawes
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JIM MESSENGER INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW WITH JIM MESSENGER,
HEAD COACH OF THE GB WOMEN’S TEAM
Beccy Small posed some questions to Jim Messenger,
the recently appointed head coach of the Women’s GB Tackle Team:
BECCY: Jim, you have a lot of experience working with youth and
men’s American football in Great Britain. What made you decide
to get involved in development of the women’s game?
JIM: First and foremost the enthusiasm of the players themselves.
I’m really impressed with the commitment that has already been
shown by our growing group of female players and I would like to
help them have the best experience they can from this amazing
sport. Maybe help avoid some of the pitfalls we fellas had along the
way. I’m also intrigued by the idea of what we can do differently
now that we are effectively starting a new discipline of football
from scratch.
BECCY: What do you mean by doing things differently?
JIM: Well, women’s football doesn’t have to follow the same path
and ethos as the men’s game, we can look at new ideas and I’m
particularly keen that the players themselves have full input in to
how their game develops. I am very supportive of the idea that
there should be strong representation on the Women’s Football
Development Group by the females playing now. I would like to see
the WFDG be their vehicle to push the sport forward rather than
an NGB body pulling it forward and dictated to by administrators,
coaches etc. Sure, they will need help, guidance and some
supportive leadership, but I hope we can embed the mind-set that
this version of the game belongs to the girls. So we keep an open
mind and help them to have what they want and not necessarily
just follow the men’s game.
BECCY: What do you think of the ability of the female players you
have seen and had the chance to work with so far?
JIM: I’ve been impressed. There were some really good players in
the tackle tournament. I’m also aware there are a number of girls
playing in the men’s teams currently and who have done so in the
past. We are still looking at eligibility but I hope we can give the
opportunity to play for GB to as many as possible. Certainly any
girls currently playing in BUAFL/BUCS will be eligible and all are
invited to the first GB days.
BECCY: Are you going to be selecting a coaching staff soon?
JIM: We already have Richard Ward as the Deputy Head Coach.
Richard is the Head Coach of the University of Hertfordshire
Tornadoes women’s team and has really done a terrific job of pulling
that programme together. It was agreed right from the start that we
would install a young coach as a kind of understudy/successor and
Richard is someone I know well and am very comfortable working
with. Obviously a 5 v 5 team doesn’t need a big staff, maybe only
three to four coaches, but we would like to share the experience as
widely as possible. So we will be open with invitations to coaches
as well as players to Great Britain practice days.
BECCY: So how do you see things evolving from here with the
GB squad?
JIM: First, we need to recognise that there are very few females
actually playing the game at present. That needs to increase
rapidly. So, for now, the GB squad will not really be an elite team
as such, more a head-line development team for the sport where
we can fast-track players, learn and disseminate good practice etc.
Of course we will make selections when we get the opportunity to
play games, but while the pool of players is still small we would like
to engage as many as possible during training days.
When I sat down to think about how we would put a team together
to play an international game, my first concern was that our female
players have almost no contact football experience and there is
not even a regular competition format yet. It’s quite funny to come
at this from the other direction. The men’s GB teams are always
trying to squeeze practices and events in between the domestic
competition structure. For the women’s game, we are working on
how we establish a regular competition structure that fits around
the GB team.
BECCY: It’s been mentioned that a women’s GB team might now
travel to Finland in the Summer of 2013 instead of the original
idea of going with the men’s student team to Sweden in the
spring. Why the change?
JIM: Spring will be a tight schedule for the men’s team but they at
least have the ability to choose from a potential pool of 4,000 male
student players, many with a lot of experience. For a GB women’s
team this is just an unworkable time-scale. We need time for the
players to get some game experience and adjust to tackle football.
At most, they have played a couple of games so far.
So I was already considering the option of a delay until later in
the year and then a great opportunity arose. The Women’s World
Championship, which is due to run in June and July 2013, was
switched from Canada to Finland. So we contacted IFAF and
floated the idea that maybe we could visit the tournament and
possibly play some 5 v 5 games whilst there. That would allow
the amazing opportunity for our team members to observe the
WWC as well as playing our own games. IFAF and the hosting
Finnish Federation seem willing to explore this further, so it’s
watch-this-space for now. We also have another opportunity for
an international game later in the summer.
BECCY: When will we have details of events and competitions
over the coming year?
JIM: We are just finalising a schedule now through to Summer
2014. We think it’s important to project into the mid-term future so
we don’t fail to plan effectively beyond next summer’s GB event.
Details should be out very soon.
BECCY: Thanks Jim.
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E-BULLETIN
WIDER DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING DAY SUCCESS
On Sunday 8th December Warwick University played host to
a women’s flag training day organised by long-time coaching
stalwarts Andrew Gambrill and Phil Gaydon
The day was attended by 23 women and girls representing
7 different teams from around the country and included
classroom sessions and two games against the Marlow
Wolves juniors.
Organiser, Andrew Gambrill expressed his delight; “There
was a record attendance and variety of teams represented, as
well as clear progress by individuals and across the project in
general... the enthusiasm from the players and support from
BAFA has been overwhelming and we are very grateful.”
GAME MVPs
ELITE:
Offence - Millie Barrett (Coventry Cougars)
Defence – Amanda ‘Panda’ Casey
(Hertfordshire Tornadoes)
DEVELOPMENT SQUAD:
Offence – Vicki ‘Afia’ Law (Portsmouth Destroyers)
Defence – Jamie Day (Warwick Wolverines)
Photos by Boom Boom
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UPCOMING EVENTS
WOMEN’S FOOTBALL CALENDAR
2013
February 23rd
5v5 Tackle Football Tournament A (University of Hertfordshire)
March 9th
5v5 Tackle Football Tournament B (Southampton)
April 6/7th
Great Britain Team Trial Day - (venue to be confirmed)
April 20th
5v5 Tackle Football Tournament C - (venue to be confirmed)
May 4th University Tackle Football Championship 2013
May 18th
Great Britain Team practice day
June 8th
Great Britain Team practice day
June 22nd-30th
Great Britain Team practice and international game(s)
September
Great Britain International game (provisional)
October
Recruitment starts for university teams - flag football
Nov-Dec
University Flag Football Championship 2013
(There will also be additional opportunities for flag football games
throughout the spring and summer).
2014
Feb-May
5v5 tackle football tournaments
May
University Tackle Football Championship 2014
(Summer)
International competition hosted in UK (provisional)
For all enquires on this schedule, tournament events and the GB women’s team
contact Jim Messenger. Tel: 07962 250526 email: [email protected]
Follow us:
@BAFAOfficial
Like us on Facebook
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britishamericanfootballassociation
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