Lee inspiring for the next generation
Kids thrilled by EK hero’s coaching session
PAUL THOMSON
The John Wright Sports Centre set Lee Alexander on the path to a World Cup with Scotland.
Now the Glasgow City goalkeeper has returned to her roots to inspire the next generation of female football stars.
In September last year, the former Calderglen High School pupil launched the Lee Alexander Soccer Centre in the town in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture and sponsors SEE. Designed to help girls aged between 5 and 12 years old fall in love with football in a fun and nurturing environment, the Soccer Centres have proved a hit with budding players.
Last week Alexander made a surprise visit to a session in the John Wright Sports Centre to put youngsters through their paces, taking goalkeeping drills and passing on her advice.
Pupils from a host of local primary schools took part and Lee said: “It’s great to give girls a taste for it.
“Back when I started there wasn’t many options – you played with a boys’ team or not at all.
“So to see that you can make a career out of it, go to a World Cup and get all of these things out of it, there are opportunities I’d never of dreamed of when I was younger. I used to train once a week with a game at the weekend.
“A lot of teams are training two or three times a week and that’s great. That’s more time on the pitch for you to get better.
“Now that things are being showcased more, the hope is that we can inspire young girls to do it as well.
“I’m born and bred in East Kilbride, so I’ve got a lot of football memories here.
“I played with my local girls club until I was 15, so it’s always nice to come back and see where the journey started and help other girls starting out.”
The youngsters have been inspired by seeing Lee on the global stage at this summer’s World Cup in France.
Lee helped Scotland qualify for the tournament for the first time and all of the group matches were televised, helping boost the profile of the women’s game in Scotland.
The tournament ended in heartbreak though for the Scots, as a controversial moment in their final group match with Argentina cost them the chance to reach the knockout stages.
Scotland had a three-goal lead going into the final 15 minutes and Argentina pulled two back before Lee made a vital penalty save in the dying moments.
But a VAR (video assistant referee) review deemed the Scotland keeper had moved off her line before the penalty was struck.
She was penalised and Argentina netted from the re-take to knock out Scotland.
“It’s been difficult to get over, to be honest,” the 28-year-old admitted.
“I’m not going to hide away from that. “It’s such a big moment and in the last game we threw it away. We had it in our hands with 15 minutes to go and it slowly slipped away.
“But that’s something we will learn from as players.
“You have to have the highs and the lows. That’s part of football. Sometimes the biggest mistakes are the ones that you will learn from.”
The visit to the John Wright Sports Centre reunited the shot-stopper with one of her first coaches, Ian Steele, who led Lee’s South Lanarkshire team to a gold medal at the 2004 International Children’s Games in Cleveland, Ohio, and is now the development officer for the centre.
Lee recalled: “I know Ian through playing at the International Children’s Games.
“That was my first and only time so far that I’ve been to America to play football so I’ve got good memories of it.
“We beat Reykjavik [3-1] in the final. It was quite nice and to go to America for a tournament and come away with gold was great.”
Lee was speaking ahead of last Sunday’s Scottish Women’s Cup final between Glasgow City and Hibernian. City won the clash 4-3 to secure a domestic double.
The Lee Alexander Soccer Centre runs at the John Wright Sports Centre every Tuesday from 5pm-6pm.
If your child would like to get involved email customer.services@ southlanarkshire.co.uk for more information.