M’Grady’s FA award
Sarah M’Grady was this week honoured by the Kent FA for her pioneering work in girls football at Larkfield. M’Grady launched a female football section at the club last summer and there are now 70 girls attached to Larkfield between the ages of seven and 15. She picked up the Kent FA Volunteer of the Year award yesterday (Thursday) but was quick to hail the good work being done across the county to help promote the sport.
M’Grady said: “What we’ve done at Larkfield is brilliant but we’re lucky in Kent, with the Girls and Ladies League and the Kent FA. “They are trying the hardest they possibly can to make it grow. Other clubs are vsupportive, which I don’t think you always get with boys’ teams. We organise things between us and we get a lot of help from other clubs.”
M’Grady took a leap of faith by setting up the girls’ section – and it proved to be an inspired decision.
She said: “At the time, I didn’t know it was needed. I put the idea out there to some parents as to whether girls football would be wanted. It just grew and grew from there.
“Larkfield is just a village, so to see 70 girls out there who, a year ago, wouldn’t have been playing football, is just brilliant.
“A lot of them weren’t doing any sport so we’ve not only proved that need (for football) was there, it’s ended up being beneficial for them.
“There are some shy girls, who can kick a ball but they probably wouldn’t have had the courage to play with boys. Now they’re playing alongside girls, you can see their confidence grow and that’s probably more what it’s about.”
M’Grady’s timing couldn’t have been much better. Ladies football is booming and the England team played in front of 45,000 fans at Wembley last month.
She said: “It was the right time to do it. A lot of people said ‘I bet you wish you’d done this earlier’ but I don’t know whether it would have taken off.
“Larkfield on a Sunday now is full of girls. A year ago, those pitches would have been empty.”