By Jordan Jones
She was once barred from competing in a football tournament due to being a girl, but now Efa Williams is inspiring a generation through an FAW Trust scheme.
Hailing from Pontypridd, Efa moved to Sheffield where she would play football alongside her brother and his friends.
But during a tournament which involved her brother and his teammates, after a brief stint at playing, she was pulled from the action.
“I lived in Sheffield from two until 12, football was massive up there compared to Wales. I had a brother and I was a bit of tomboy on the cul-de-sac and always played football.
“Back in the day, girls didn’t really play. I can remember once on an afternoon out my brother was in a cubs tournament and they didn’t have enough players.
“They said to go on and play, but within 10 minutes I was told I couldn’t play because I was a girl.
“I just wasn’t allowed. That though was in the 1970s. It’s different now.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>FAW Trust are launching the Huddle initiative in early September, an initiative where 23 centres are opening up to create a fun, friendly environment for young girls to come and play football (and bridge what can be a daunting gap from trying the sport to joining a club)</p>— Katie Sands (@KESands) <a href=”https://twitter.com/KESands/status/1163692168130846720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
It certainly is. Having returned to Wales, particularly in Caerleon, where she has lived for over 35 years, Efa took up a role with the FAW Trust’s Huddle programme.
She is one of the coaches who has worked closely helping nurture girls’ interest in football. In doing so she has created a pathway for them to play football on Saturdays.
The FAW Trust coach explained how she got involved with Huddle after a discussion with friends.
She said: “I said I’m quite good at football and I’ll give you a hand, within two minutes I was part of a WhatsApp group, I was DBS checked and I was in.
“We’ve been running it for eight weeks. We did a lot of it outside before the clocks changed. Outside it was great, we had loads of space.
“We have seen lots more skills, fitness, teamwork and most importantly fun. We did some dodgeball in the middle and they loved it.
Through the programme, a number of players have begun playing for teams on a Saturday after being recognised for their talents on the pitch.
Some players had already been playing club football, but for others, they’ve been introduced to Saturday football after beginning with the clubs programme.
“We’ve got a couple of players who have shown some great development. We’ve seen them on Saturday with a club.
“We’ve seen some other players that we’ve tapped up and said you’re good, you should come along and you’ve got a natural skill for it.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>**FAW Trust Girls Huddle – Friends, Fun, Footy**<br><br>We are delighted to announce that Everton and Wales Women’s player Elise Hughes will be our ambassador for the FAW Trust Huddle! <a href=”https://t.co/kityXAv3b1″>pic.twitter.com/kityXAv3b1</a></p>— Berriew FC Juniors (@BerriewFc) <a href=”https://twitter.com/BerriewFc/status/1165587274043658241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 25, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
“Girls clubs at this age have been predominantly gymnastics and netball, guides and brownies.
“Football has never been touched up until now but now they’re thinking they would like to have a go.”
And at Caerleon Comprehensive School where she and her children were taught, the school, which houses one of the Huddle programmes, has since started a girls team for the first time in their history.
“They enjoyed it, and could see where they could go with it,” she added.
“The interesting thing is, my kids go to this comp, I went to this comp.
“There hadn’t been a football team here ever but they’ve started one up this year, the momentum is starting to crank up a bit with the Euros.
“These girls will be going to comps soon and they’ll have a school football team they can go to.