Outnumbered But Unbowed

What would you do if you found you didn’t have enough players to field a team at the start of the football season… drop your bundle and pull out of the competition?
Not the Prospect United under 16 girls, who soldiered on with only nine players for most of the season, not just competing every week but going on to win the 2014 Blacktown Association Division One Grand Final.
They might have been outnumbered but for striker Kevin Opia, born in Uganda after her family had to flee South Sudan, this was a minor hurdle; “We’ve been through tough times. We just had to get through it and keep on playing.”
That’s just what this group of girls intends to do, aiming to play in the 2015 Premier League, an open age competition, for which they want to boost their ranks with players who can offer a guiding hand; “We still act like girls. We still fight like girls. If we can get some older people here I think that we could work as adults. We’ll try,” defender Deanna Efstathiou said.
The Prospect United team has bonded under coach Jeff Woolley who mixes up training with anything from karate to water skiing; “It’s not just about soccer, it’s about life skills as well and being able to communicate with each other. With our team there’s a lot of different nationalities and they get on tremendously.”
While it’s the people who make a club they still need decent facilities and at Prospect United’s home ground, William Lawson Park, females and males have to share one change room in a dilapidated building.
Back in 2008 Blacktown City Council committed to building a new amenities block but it remains unfunded.  Meantime, the club waits and the players deserve better.