Tara Murray
Sydenham Park exceeded all expectations in its first full season of having women’s sides in the FV state league competition.
After first looking to field a side for 2020 before the season was cancelled, the club then had one take to the park for the first time in the shortened 2021 season.
With numbers growing, the club fielded two women’s sides this year, one in state league 4 west and one in state league 5 north-west.
Both teams had success, earning promotion for next season.
Stephanie Surbevski has been part of the women’s program at the club from the start.
“We started the women’s program in 2020, but no season went ahead because of COVID,” she said.
“Our first official season was last year, we only had the one team but because of how successful we were last year, we actually got a big influx of girls who came for 2022.”
Mark Gauci came on board as the state league 4 coach, while Carlos Mejia joined the club as the state league 5 coach.
Gauci said the goal for the state league 4 team was to claim promotion. They finished second, goal difference behind champions Gisborne.
“There was a good bunch of girls there and I brought a few girls across with me,” he said.
“Ended up having about 17 girls, the girls all gelled well. There were tough games during the season.
“The team played well and we always wanted promotion to state league 3. We thought we deserved to end up on top but our end game was just getting promotion, winning the league would have been icing on the cake for us.
“We had our highs and lows throughout the season but we couldn’t ask for much more girls worked hard all season at training, did what they had to game day,
“We’re really delighted and excited for next year.”
Majia said they weren’t expecting the season they had in state league 5. They finished third before winning a play off match. Six of the squad still under-17
“Some of the girls from the junior side at Sydenham came up and then some of the girls from the other team where I was coaching followed me across.
“At the end we did manage to get a whole team together, which we ended up getting 19 players at the end.
“We combined youth and experience with hard work but managed to gel pretty well and get the season rolling. Very successful and very happy with that.”
Surbevski said there was a lot of passion and support from the overall club to help get the promotion not only get on the park, but be successful.
“Winning promotion is what we set out to do at the start of the season and winning it, we deserve it.
“It was a very heartfelt moment for all players.”
The club is keen to expand their female program next season. This year they had under-15s. They are hoping to get an under-12s side next year to get more girls involved.
The club will put out expressions of interest for female players for all age groups.
Surbevski said the club was like a family. While happy with their success the club is already thinking about the future.
“We want to bring the girls as high as we can. We’re a club that is capable of doing that.”
