2021 Making Her Mark - touching base
Our Women in Sport Coordinator has arrived back in Broome from a big trip throughout the East Kimberley, touching base with communities during pre-season. Katherine travelled to Yiyili, Halls Creek, Kalumburu, Wyndham and Kununurra, and then on to Looma the following week.
COVID has a heavy impact on the amount of sport available to participate in throughout the Kimberley last year, so it was really important we were able to get out there and help build up the hype for the upcoming season!
This year, MHM will be experimenting with new ways to run our program, listening to feedback from previous years and supporting women with their pre-season, coaching credentials, and encouraging women in community to get out and have a run. Each community was provided with a MHM starter kit, including footys, cones, bibs, a coaches board and whistles!
In Halls Creek, Kath teamed up with our Senior Development Officer Darrilyn Gordon to support the women’s training session and touch base with HC Lady Hawks. It was good to see all the young girls from the Shooting Stars program, they are so passionate about footy and encourage each other to join in.
In Kalumburu, Katherine travelled on a community flight from Kununurra with our East Kimberley team, Deon, Riley and Jofrarn for three days of sporting activities, tying in with the school to deliver PE sessions as well as running after school basketball and footy. This was Katherine’s first trip to Kalumburu as Women in Sport Coordinator, and we are looking forward to building relationships with the teachers and community mob, as well as brainstorming ways to increase sporting opportunities for women. Deadly work from Rosilia from Kalumburu! She was awarded the MHM footy kit for her participation.
In Yiyili, it was the first training session for all the women for a long time and the first real opportunity for the girls to get out and just see each other. The energy was electric! You could feel in the community how powerful it was to have the women out there, all the men and kids came down to watch. Big thanks to Erica and Monty for the support, and to Monty for putting on a BBQ for us all.
In Wyndham, Katherin and Jofrarn joined the Wyndham Crocs training session, with the fantastic coach Timmsy and our MHM role model Shaye Taylor! We had a whopping 24 girls come down to training, which is huge numbers! there. 24 girls came down to training, Katherine and joey join in. helped run some drills, good feeling in the air, haven’t had numbers like that for a long time!
Finally in Kununurra, our MHM session was rained out but that didn’t stop the weekend scratch match with the Kununurra Demons and Wyndham Crocs. Katherine jumped in for the Demons as they were low on numbers, also to do talent identification while she was playing.
The following week over in the West Kimberley, Katherine visited Looma to touch base with the Lady Eagles and our new local development officer, Darliah Killer. It was a great session with the ladies down there, as always Looma mob are motivated and keen to have a run. Thanks to our local heroes Cindy, Lyla and Darliah!
