Hawks girls charge in

The Baulkham Hills Hawks will field its first all-girls teams this year, thanks to the driving force of two local parents.

The Baulkham Hills Hawks are starting up a girls aussie rules team.Zenae, Pavell, Maddt Smith, Tahlee Sparks, Jana Webb (coach), Shayle Cromie, Natasha Gold-Smith, Ashleigh Cooper and Kirilee Stanmore

The Baulkham Hills Hawks will field its first all-girls teams this year, thanks to the driving force of two local parents.

Baulkham Hills Australian football Club’s registrar and girls’ manager Kylie Stanmore and committee member Kristen Groll decided to put together an all-girls team for their daughters to play in after the mixed competition became too rough.

“Our girls have played AFL since they were 5, but they were getting to the stage where playing with the boys was getting a bit rough,” Stanmore said.

“So we wanted to get an all-girls team together.”

Stanmore and Groll advertised the new all-girls teams at local schools and the club, and received an overwhelming response.

About 40 girls signed up for two teams — U14 and U18 — this season.

Stanmore said the participation rate was “incredible”.

“It makes us very proud to see that we’ve achieved something like this,” she said.

“But it’s good for the girls, and they love the AFL and their footy.

“For them to be playing the sport they enjoy with their friends — there is nothing better.”

Coach Jana Webb with Hawks players Zenae Pavell, Maddy Smith, Tahnee Sparks, Shayla Cromie, Natasha Gold-Smith, Ashleigh Cooper and Kirilee Stanmore.

The U14 team is one of eight in the Western Sydney Youth Girls U15 competition, which will be held this year for the first time.

The U18s will play in the existing Sydney Harbour Youth Girls competition, which has 11 teams.

The U14 teams will be coached by Blacktown Magic’s Jana Webb, with the U18 coach yet to be decided.

“We’re trying to keep it all female orientated; they’ll have a female coach, a female manager and an all-girls team,” Stanmore said.

Stanmore’s 11-year-old daughter Kirilee had always played for the Hawks in a mixed team, but she found the game became tougher as she got older.

“I joined (football) because my brother started playing and then we started kicking the footy out the front,” she said.

“It was fun until we got to last year and we had to start tackling.”

She will play in the U14 team along with five of her friends who signed up, and said she was looking forward to making new friends in the all-girls competition.

The Baulkham Hills Hawks will enter two all-girls teams in the 2016 season.

Groll said her 11-year-old daughter Tahnee had played Australian rules since she was four, but chose not to play last year.

“It was a bit daunting,” Groll said.

“Last year when they were playing U11s they would have been in Div 1 so they’re pretty gung ho and serious about their footy.”

Groll said the teams were a mix of experienced players and those with “no AFL exposure at all”.

“The take up has been really good,” Groll said.

“We initially started just with the U14 (team) and just before Christmas we had inquiries with the 18s, so we’ve grown to having to field two teams which is awesome.”

Novotel Norwest has sponsored the teams, providing jerseys, shorts and socks.

The season starts in April.