A new football coach has teamed up with new players to form a match made in Whangārei.

FC Whangārei Women’s has grown from a small team of seven or eight to an impressive squad of
18.

And for the first time since 2014, the team has registered its first win in the Northland Second Division.

Leading the team is Marc Perales who has seen the sport’s growth first hand after he made the shift from a player of 25 years to wearing the coach’s hat for the first time.

“It is a bit of ‘baptism of whaea’ kind of a thing.

“But it is a really good thing because the guys have been really responsive to coaching. No one’s played at a very high level, they are almost like a blank canvas to work with.”

Perales was proud of the team as he looked back at the progress made since losing the first pre-season game 18-0.

Just last month the Whangārei team competed against Kaitāia and registered its first win.

The team put the performance of the season in torrential rain which lasted the full 90 minutes.

“As the weeks have gone by, the players have got much better and the scores are getting a lot closer.”

The team was a semi-finalist in the Plate Tournament this year and Perales said it would be very special if they won it.

“If we win that there’s a big final day at the stadium. It’s kind of a dream for us, and it would be great to have started the year with a bunch of women who have never played the game before and finish the year by winning at the stadium.”

Perales said, generally speaking, football was still a male-dominated sport, and one of the reasons a women’s team was started in the district.

“The women’s teams are doing great across the globe, and we are starting to see that in New Zealand.

“Especially here in Northland, which is a very rugby and hockey-dominated region.

“The whole aim was to try and get a team with players who have never played before. It’s giving the local women an opportunity to play, along with socialising and staying fit.”

Perales said although there were a few challenges for the players, the club was trying its best to combat that.

“One of the biggest challenges for the players would be family time. So we keep training at the same time every week, and to overcome the family time challenge, the husbands, boyfriends and children have started coming with the players and we give them T-shirts.

“It is a big commitment and they have to juggle.”

Normally player fees cost $250 per person, however, the club agreed to cover those costs for players, said Perales.

“Injuries are another challenge. Since they are new to the sport, they didn’t even know they could get injured in so many different ways.”

The Whangārei women’s FC was the baby of John Andrew, Abby Batkin and club president Tom Hudson. Perales said they would ideally want more than one team in the future to make the sport as accessible as possible.

First-time player Alexis Fromont said although they had always been near the sport as partners, brothers, or other family members were involved the majority had never played before.

“It is really cool to have an opportunity to give it a go and just have fun.”

Kristy Lambert said the sport was a cool way to meet people – she was happy to have formed “quite a good” bond with other players.

For Abby Batkin, it made sense to be on the team since everyone was new and on the same level.

“Most of us are mums as well. Usually, there is a group of kids running around. The kids have made their own friends and they want to come for the training and games.”