Over the last few years there has been a growing interest in sport in the town. One recent development has been the forming of the ladies and girls football team.
There are four different age groups of the girls football teams and one main ladies team. The young girls of Pwllheli join the ladies twice a week for training.
The Pwllheli girls teams have been developed with a lot of hard work by local people including Peter who started the training for girls, and has encouraged me to carry my football career on and now I play for the regional development squad of North Wales.
I also play in four different teams - Pwllheli boys under 14s and girls under 16s.
The girls under 16s have been competing in various tournaments, for example against Man Utd, Everton, Liverpool and even the national Welsh team.
Of course we also play against some local non-rated teams, but we worked diligently to reach our potential! There are some bad points for being in these teams - for example in the North Wales team we had to pay £50 for our kit. I feel that this isn't fair because the team should get more sponsorship. Also, because I live in Pwllheli I've got to travel all the way to our training ground in Rhyl and that is expensive.
When I play in the boys team some people might object from a chauvinistic point of view (because I'm a girl). I feel very privileged to play in the boys team but I get treated the same as the boys, so it's fair.
Training
Girls of all ages train every week to improve. We train on the beach, in the local leisure centre and also at the Rec. Training includes shooting, stretching, sprinting, and also skills. After the coaches spend time training us, the quality of the football that is played is very high.
Some of the girls that have started with the Pwllheli local team, now play for national teams. One of my friends, Natalie, plays squash for Wales and now she also plays for Wales in football.
Our Fantastic Supporters
We have had a lot of support over the past years from the local council and from local people, which has been beneficial to us. Local people come to enjoy the games and the tense tournaments and support us all the way through. They support us through thick and thin, they stand watching us in the boiling sun or in the wet rain!
Our supporters have been an inspiration for me and they kept me going through the bad times.
Overall, Pwllheli girls football team has been a brilliant team to play with and has taught me many lessons. It's not all good working in a team when some girls might not agree all the time.
But I hope that this talented football team will carry on and achieve more things over the next few years and I hope it will put Pwllheli on the map!
I would like to thank all the locals and coaches in Pwllheli that have supported and helped us, I feel proud to be part of this team. The lesson I've learnt is that just because Pwllheli is a small town, I still can go places and reach my target of playing football.
