Natasha Kulinski and Kelly Whelan were both nominated for the camp by Surrey after putting in some impressive work coaching and volunteering within their local clubs and communities. Kelly, holder of a Junior Sports Leaders Award, has been coaching the under-12 girl’s team at Tooting & Mitcham and was described by the Head of PE at her school as being ‘inspirational to young players’, while Natasha has spent the past two seasons helping coach the under 10 and under 11’s girls teams at Kingstonian Youth, while also working in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police to help run a community scheme at Crystal Palace. She has also already managed to gain her FA Level 1 coaching badge.
At the camp, which was a week long and designed to deliver inspirational leadership opportunity for young people, the young leaders were educated in workshops on areas such as Women & Girls Football, Disability Football, Futsal, Goalkeeper Coaching, Refereeing and the role of Sports & Exercise Science in football, and were joined by England stars Kelly Smith, Rachel Brown, Rachel Unitt and Emily Westwood, who all offered their own expertise and advice to all the young leaders throughout the week.
It is hoped that the experiences of the girls on the camp will encourage them to be long-term advocates and volunteers within their FA Charter Standard Clubs.