Waltzing Matilda set to earn her stripes
CAIRNS junior footballers will be waltzing down to Edge Hill FC’s Tiger Park next month when Chloe Logarzo brings an exclusive two-day clinic and information session to the region.
The Australian Olympian, Westfield Matilda and Sydney FC player will run an all-female clinic on January 20-21 for players from the ages of six to 18.
Logarzo said she began doing clinics in rural and country areas to “change the way of women’s football and increase participation rates”.
“I was born and raised in the city and I was given every opportunity to succeed and be where I am and I just think that’s lacking a little bit in these areas,” she said.
“To to be able to come here and provide this for the young girls is very important to me.”
While she had the opportunity to go to similar clinics when she was younger, they were all boys’ clinics, she said.
“To hold an all-girls clinic is something that’s amazing for me,” Logarzo said.
“To see where women’s football’s come and where it’s going off the success the Matildas have had in the last couple of years.
“For me, it wasn’t something that I could see myself doing as a career and making good money out of,” she said.
“To be able to provide this to girls and make sure that they have a pathway that’s realistic if they want to just be footballers – it gets me excited just thinking about it and I wish I was 12 years old again.”
But with all the growth in women’s football, Logarzo said girls and women still needed to “keep pushing”, citing this week’s Ballon d’Or incident, where the first female winner of the historic award was asked to twerk just moments after receiving it.
“It was such an amazing experience for (Ada Hegerberg) to win a presitigious award like that, and it’s just so disappointing to see something belittled with a sexist comment,” she said.
She said she hoped to see “lovely young talent” and Cairns’ own Matilda Mary Fowler back in the green-and-gold next year for the World Cup.
“It will be good to see her come back into the national team,” she said.
“We’ve got the World Cup next year and it would be good to have a number nine that’s coming through that will hopefully be in the team for many years to come.
Edge Hill FC president Glen Waddingham said it was “fantastic” to have a Matilda spread the word of women’s football in Cairns.
“I know we’ve got a lot of young junior girls out there who look up to Chloe,” he said.
“(The clinic) will be open to any girl from any club – even if you’re not with a club – it will be great to get all girls who are interested in playing football to come down and have a run.”
He said the clinics came about after a player’s parent ran into Chloe “by the off chance” in Sydney.
“We got chatting through email and phone conversation and she said she wanted to come up and do a clinic,” Waddingham said.
“Fortunately, we’ve got the facilities to be able to do it and we’ve been able to make it happen.”