I was given the opportunity by Soccerella* to interview Niamh McKevitt - a 16 year old girl who's just published her first book Playing with the boys. She details her incredible and often amusing journey growing up as the sole girl playing in a boys league...here's what we discussed.
Ask Niamh (pronounced
“Nieve”) how she ended up with the boys, and she will tell you it was never a
choice between boys or girls, but rather the desire “to be playing at the
highest standard I could”, and make the next “step up” in the game. While this has recently led her to shift her
attentions to the highest ranks of the women’s game, joining Huddersfield Town
in the FA WPL North (a feeder league to WSL2), she spent the first part of her
football career competing in the top division of her local boys junior league. Here, despite some initial apprehension from
her new teammates, she quickly found herself accepted as her talent at
left-back became apparent: “the boys wanted you in the team, regardless of whether
you were a boy or girl”.
As she developed, Niamh
did occasionally experience girl’s football, especially as she approached the FA’s
cut-off ages for mixed teams. Happily
for Niamh, these were continually reviewed and shifted throughout her career
and, as of the current season, mixed teams are allowed until the age of 18. Given her experience in both environments,
Niamh is well-placed to highlight some of the differences between the relative
styles of boys and girls football. One
of the clearest contrasts was in training – while girls treated training as a
chance to develop, “for the boys, it may as well have been the FA Cup Final”,
such was their competitive nature. On
the flip side, Niamh highlights the greater emphasis on technique and tactics
in the girl’s game, praising the high level of coaching (typically with coaches
near UEFA B standard) that she had at spells with Derby County and Sheffield
United.
In her eyes, both sides
could learn from one another. She agrees
with the assessment of Faye White, her
role model and ex-England captain, who once said “you can tell which girls have
played mixed football, as there is more desire” – having seen her own role transform
from being one of the quieter members on the pitch in the boy’s game to being
“one of the mouthiest girls on the team”; to both teammates and referees
alike! Yet, by her own admission, at
full-back she is a stopper, and doesn’t see herself playing with the finesse shown
by some of her peers in the women’s game.
Ultimately, Niamh thinks that both approaches carry their virtues and
(in case the FA is reading!) argues greater integration between boys and girls
at younger ages could encourage this balanced development.
Changing
perceptions
When asked about the
current state of women’s football, Niamh is confident that perceptions of the
game are heading in the right direction, especially following this summer’s
FIFA Women’s World Cup. For her, “people
want to support a team that’s doing well and they want to support England – and
if they want to get both of these things, then that’s the England Women’s
team”.
The recent tournament
brought unprecedented success and attention to an English team, who, going into
the tournament, were somewhat of an underdog. And, after a heart-breaking
semi-final, the Lionnesses even overcame the curse of the Germans, with Fara Williams scoring from the spot in
extra time to earn England the bronze medal. From heartbreak to triumph; the women’s team
made history and put women in football right where it should be – in the
spotlight. The team returned home as
heroes and role models to both girls and
boys around the country and Niamh saw the shifts in perceptions first-hand. Firstly, she was bemused by the boys at school
now asking her all about the players (not least Lucy Bronze after her stunning
goal vs. Norway), but admits that she’d been trying for years to get them
interested beforehand! She also sees
that “young girls are [being] inspired, they see it’s something women can do
and that it is a women’s sport”. In the
media as well, it appears that the sport, so often male-dominated, is finally
starting to get the recognition it deserves, a stepping stone in the right
direction for our national sport.
What’s
still needed?
However, Niamh still
believes that more can be done to maintain and build on the new interest levels
of women’s football. She thinks that newspapers
and other media channels continue to underestimate the potential interest in
the game: “they think there is no want for content, but there is pent up
desire, just no outlet for it”. As for
the Women’s Super League, she believes more can still be done to improve the
accessibility of the product – firstly, with advertising the current matches
and then with adapting the schedule to become more consistent, with fewer
weekends off and reducing the mid-season break.
But she recognises its potential, noting that “what will determine how
much the sport grows is the WSL and the European leagues, how well they are
publicised and our future successes at World Cups.”
Niamh also thinks the
success will be driven to an extent by the league’s ability to generate
world-class, superstar players – those such as Alex Morgan today, and Mia
Hamm for past generations. She
recognises the success that FIFA has made with this on the men’s side and sees
it as a channel to grow the women’s game globally, both commercially and to
encourage fresh participation. So, who
are Niamh’s big three Lionnesses? After some reflection, she decides on Jill Scott, Fara Williams and Casey Stoney today, but also recognises
the impact that Kelly Smith and Faye White had on her career, admitting that she idolised the pair
since Primary School, where she used to write biographies of them.
What
does the future hold… and a trip down memory lane
In 2012, Niamh
hypothesised that she would “never play professionally in front of 50,000
people” – but is she now reconsidering this?
While admitting the future is bright for the sport, and particularly the
WSL, Niamh says she hasn’t yet given much thought to a possible career in
football. For now, her attentions are set
on developing her game with Huddersfield Town, earning a scholarship to play
college soccer in the US and, let’s not forget, celebrating the publishing of
her first book at the tender age of 16!
As we conclude, we
asked Niamh for a few of her best memories with the boys. Firstly, she told us about scoring a rare
goal to complete a hard-fought 3-3 comeback in the cup quarter-final – and the
resulting awkward moment as the boys considered a massive hug before resorting
to a more conservative high-five (although we suggested the bowling ball
celebration may have been a better compromise…). And then there are great moments that you can
only get by being a girl in a boy’s game.
In a tale from tour, Niamh chuckles as she recounts her
colourfully-worded suggestion to a poor lad, having just dived in front of her
that he might want to get up... “I
didn’t realise it at the time, but it was right in front of all the watching
teams… let’s just say, he won’t be diving again any time soon!”
*Soccerella is a store dedicated to women's football in the UK. Niamh's book is available online here: http://soccerel.la/
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