While Fantails has been offered by many established football clubs throughout Aotearoa, Central Football used the programme as an opportunity to introduce football to a community that previously didn’t have access to the beautiful game. Not only are new girls inspired to fall in love with football, but the game became a vehicle to upskill its youth and bring the community together.

There’s no football club in Flaxmere. While schools in the small Hawke’s Bay township of 12,000 have been keen to offer the game, “they lacked the necessary skilled individuals to teach it,” explains Central Football’s Legacy and Inclusion Manager Alisa Schlierike. 

Until New Zealand Football’s FIFA Women’s World Cup legacy programme Fantails was introduced.

Having grown up in the township, for Alisa “one of the biggest pieces about Legacy that I wanted to bring in was making football accessible to everybody. There are some communities [like Flaxmere] that, for whatever reason, don't have the same access that others do.”

That’s where Fantails, a programme designed to introduce the community’s primary school-aged girls to football in a fun, no-pressure environment came in, she says. Central Football partnered with four Flaxmere primary schools (Te Kura O Kima Ora, Irongate School, Te Whai Hiringa and Flaxmere Primary School) to bring the programme to the community, with two schools hosting in terms 3 and 4 in 2023 and the other two in terms 2 and 3 this year. A Fantails Football Festival will then bring the schools together to celebrate the programme’s completion. 

A priority was having “coaches deliver this programme that came from the community” and could relate to the participants and be role models for them, says Alisa.

“I had the idea to have a tuakana model of coaching where the older kids in the community can teach the younger ones, so I approached Flaxmere College and they were happy to assist us with it.”

Before leading the sessions, year 11 and 12 students from the college were required to complete a Junior Level 1 coaching course, and have also been able to gain NCEA credits for their coaching. Despite not being footballers themselves, “they’re avid sports people. It’s been great to be able to take them through coaching and see them grow with confidence each week,” notes Alisa. 
 

Inside a session at Irongate School

It’s a scorching hot Wednesday afternoon at Irongate School. As we arrive with Alisa and Kara Birnie from Central Football to set up the Fantails session, excited tamariki run over to help set up (read: play with) the equipment, squealing, “Do we get to play football today?!”

The bonds between the tamariki and their coaches are clear, with the youngsters flinging themselves at their older counterparts to greet them with hugs before getting into the session.

“None of these girls are footballers per se,” explains Flaxmere College sports department head Jo Lucas, “so at first they were a bit apprehensive. But as they learnt that it's more about people and communication skills, they were pretty keen to give it a go.” 

“It’s been really special to be able to give students in the community the skills to be able to coach and then have them come into the schools and deliver it,” she says, noting that some of the students have had the opportunity to coach at their former primary schools.

“It’s been good for them to give some service back to their old school,” says Jo. 

“It’s quite rewarding for teenagers to stop and give a little bit back to somebody else. They'll be grateful for that.

After the session two of the coaches, Scarlett and Genevieve, reflect on some of the most  satisfying moments they experience during the sessions.

“Seeing a big smile on their face when they know the game we’re going to teach them,” notes Genevieve

“Having fun with the little ones for me has been huge!” says Scarlett.

Fantails has become a mechanism for building leaders and developing relationships in Flaxmere’s community - and for Central Football’s Alisa Schlierike, this has been a significant outcome. 

“We've had instances where the girls who coach have been at the supermarket and they've seen girls they've been coaching in the programmes and they kind of wave to them and they know who they are.

“It’s really cool fostering that kind of relationship within the community of having older role models that the children can look up to: that's been a really positive thing to come out of it.”


Article added: Monday 12 February 2024