Friday night lights to be switched on in Athboy for new tournament
Women’s soccer is fast-growing sport both Ireland and abroad - and moves are afoot in Athboy to ensure greater numbers are involved in the beautiful game.
This Friday night (6th February) two finals will take place on the astro pitches at the local Cow Park of the first ever women’s six-a-side soccer tournament hosted by Athboy Celtic.
Six teams entered this inaugural tournament including one from Parkvilla and three from Athboy Celtic with senior players and youths composing the various teams from the host club. The two other teams involved carry the distinctive names of Ballon’d Beures and Clann na Soccer.
Over the past few Monday nights games have taken place in the tournament as the various teams involved played each other in a round-robin league format.
The schedule involves the top four teams in the league placings – Ballon’d Beures, Parkvilla, Clann na Soccer and Athboy Yellow – involved in two cup semi-finals. The sides that finished in fifth and sixth places – Athboy Black and Athboy Pink – take on each other in a shield decider. The cup semi-finals along with the cup and shield finals take place this Friday with all the silverware ready to be handed out to the respective winners.
The aim of the tournament is to encourage more women to get involved in soccer but in a very social, friendly environment with a big fun element to it all.
“A similar competition has been run by the men’s team over the past number of years but this is the first time that the women have had a competition like this,” explained Ailish O’Garry who is one of the soccer coaches with Athboy Celtic and a driving force behind the new tournament.
“This is to promote women’s soccer and allow people to come to try the game without having to commit to being on a team for a year.
“It’s about promoting the game at a social level rather than an extremely competitive level to begin with and encouraging people to get involved,” adds Ailish.
Athboy Celtic are represented in the Women’s North East Football League but the soccer tournament is a new dimension aimed at attracting more participants to women's game which continues to grow in popularity.