Dundee have ambitious plans to make an impact in women’s football as they embark on a fresh venture for the club.
Their aim is not to make a big splash early on before fading away, nor is it just a box-ticking exercise.
Instead, the Dark Blues are taking a long-term approach by building their women’s and girl’s set-up from the ground up.
The focus will be on coaching and developing their own players rather than stepping into the existing women’s game and taking players from other teams.
‘Build up’
“We don’t want to make it a big, massive thing because we want it to be stable long-term,” Dundee’s head of community football, James Morrison, told the Courier.
“We are starting with U/10s and U/8s and then plan to work our way up.
“We have women’s recreational football and it’s going really well but we’d like to build our way up from the younger age groups.
“The biggest thing we want to work towards is to be known for being a club with good coaching and good facilities.
“Rather than going out and saying ‘we’re the best, come play for us’ we’d like to develop players instead of taking developed players from other teams.
“We want to have a women’s team but I wouldn’t like to put an exact date on that. We want to grow it and see it done properly, throughout all the ages.”
Influence
Coaching of the new U/10s and U/8s will take place at the Regional Performance Centre in Dundee and the club’s training facility at Gardyne Campus.
It is set to utilise the skills of coaches already within the club’s academy set-up.
Long-term, the aim is to have a successful women’s team wearing a Dundee shirt.
But short-term, providing opportunity is a big part of the new venture.
“We don’t just want to be another team. We want to influence the women’s game,” Morrison added.
“Beyond the teams we’ll have women’s festivals and we are taking part in the HerGameToo movement.
#HerGameToo pic.twitter.com/tYPBJmuNQP
— Her Game Too (@HerGameToo) May 15, 2021
“Having spoken to coaches in the area we’ve seen there are teams that are full. That feels like madness because in the boys game, you’d see teams split and players spread about.
“But we’ve heard girls being turned away and, for me, I think that’s something we want to offer opportunity in.
“We won’t go down the elite route yet but want to in the future, this is something we want to do now and stabilise as we go on.”
For anyone interested in taking part in recreational women’s football with Dundee or looking for more information can contact james@dfccommunitytrust.org.uk
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