Louise Barry, a PE teacher at Rainham School for Girls in Rainham, Kent, tells us how her team have been selected to represent England at the Futsal World Cup!
Just before Christmas, I was given the most amazing news that my football team have been asked to represent England in the Futsal World Cup, taking place in Sardinia, Italy, in April this year.
As you can imagine this has been the single best thing to happen (EVER!), not only to me, but the players, staff and parents at Rainham Girls.
We have been asked to represent England as regional and then national champions, after attending a Futsal tournament in Birmingham – representing the South East. The best bit of this was that we were the only school Futsal team to arrive in Birmingham – all the other teams came as football teams and academies.
Over the past three months we have been training very hard every day to prepare the girls for this once in a life time opportunity. The girls I am taking are so hard working that they have kept up to date with their studies, as well as training as often as they can.
From the moment we heard the news, it is all that me and the twelve squad members talk about and we are counting down until our big adventure begins.
The draw for the competition has not yet been made but we could face Brazil, Italy, France, Belgium, Iran, and Guatemala in the group stages.
How many students in Kent can say that not only have they been asked to represent their country – but also could be playing against some of the best futsal countries in the world?
We have recently been live on BBC Radio Kent and will be shortly on BBC South East news, sharing our news. However, with only two months to go, we are still in desperate need of some donations to go towards kit, equipment, coach hire for transfers to and from the airport and coaching sessions from professional futsal coaches.
The English Schools FA are kindly donating the girls’ playing kit and paying for flights and accommodation but everything else has been left for the school to pay for and sadly, with limited school funds, we are in a difficult position.
We would love to go to Sardinia looking professional in all aspects from equipment and kit and would be extremely grateful of any help in this repsect.
Please email lbarry@rsg.org.uk with any offers of help.
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