Part Three of our Academy Review series focuses on Glentoran girls whose numbers have now grown to over 65 players ranging from ages 4-15.
We are immensely proud of how much our girls section has grown and over the last couple of months alone has seen a rapid rise in participation and interest and we look forward to further growth in participation over the summer and next season.
We must give great credit to the work of our volunteer parents committee who have worked hard to raise funds and to Gillian Kelly who has come to champion the girls within the Academy committee and to Suzi Rea whose enthusiasm and drive has been most impressive in her desire to build a fantastic vehicle for girls football at Glentoran.
In total we have 5 teams in the main girls section from under 7 to under 15 with approximately 65 players looked after by over 10 coaches.
From those 5 teams the following girls have represented our country at all different age bands this year.
U15 NI: Joely Andrews, Aimee-Lee Peachey, Kerry Beattie
U16 NI: Kerry Beattie, Joely Andrews, Aimee-Lee Peachy, Katie Stanfield, Leah McCabe and Rebecca McKenna
U19 NI: Yasmin Whyte, Sarah Connolly
U15 Excellence: Aimee Johnston, Anna Whibley, Olivia Marshall, Leah McCabe
2006 Club NI: Tazmin Watson
Glentoran BU U15's entered the the SBYL all girls league this year and were strong competitors for league title. The u15's had 19 registered players with 10 of these players moving into the u19 team for the 2017 season. The u15's came close third in the league and won the League Shield. The girls also took place in the IFA Futsal league each Friday night in winter and put in a good account of themselves.
Glentoran Girls U13s also entered the SBYL all girls league this year. With a very young team, and their first year entered into this league they have gained plenty of experience to work on.
Glentoran Girls U11 & U9 teams both entered into the North Down and Ards Small sided games programme, with plenty of potential it's exciting to see how far these groups of girls could come over the next few years.
We have recently formed our new Glentoran Girls Mini section, this first kicks group range from 4 to 6 years old. We now have 13 girls registered here with plenty of more interest every week.
As a growing academy we always welcomE new players and coaches. If you know any girls who would be keen to get involved and have lots of fun making new friends and learning a new sport or if you are a budding young player with ambitions of pursuing first team football with Glentoran BU please get in touch via facebook or our website
