Kayla Harvey
Orkney Women’s Football club were prepared to take a huge step forward in 2020 by joining the Highland league, but because of Coronavirus all fixtures have been cancelled until further notice.
Founded in 2019, the Highlands and Islands Women’s league attracted eight teams in its debut year. These included Kirkwall City Ladies, Brora Rangers, Buckie, Caithness, Inverness Caledonian Thistle Development, Nairn, Sutherland, and 2018 champions Clachnacuddin. The team were a very enthusiastic bunch of players and were very much looking forward to the challenge.
Katie Foulis, manager of OWFC, is optimistic for the future of the sport in Orkney. She has said that they have had a great response from the younger age-group. “The younger players are very capable. You can tell they’ve been playing in the primary leagues, because they can handle the drills that the women are doing. The senior players, and us as the coaches, are very encouraging and welcoming to them, so numbers are increasing in that age-group which is fantastic.”
Whilst play may have stopped on the pitch, the coaches are very much trying to keep the game going through social media. The football team have taken part in the “toilet roll” challenge, drills, and maintain regular updates to keep the enthusiasm going for the game.
They hope that soon the lockdown will be lifted and they will get back to training, but suspect it will be another year before they will get the chance to compete at Highland league level again.
