LONG READ: Ahead of the return to action for most senior women's football clubs in the Highlands, players and coaches from Inverness Caley Thistle and Ross County give their thoughts on how the game has grown in the North of Scotland
It has been an exciting few years for women's football. Internationally the game has grown to new heights, with the three highest attendances at football matches in Europe this year all coming at women's game – two at the Camp Nou and one at Wembley, where the final of the recent Euros took place.
In Scotland too, plenty of progress has been made. In 2017 Scotland's women became the first Scottish side to compete at a major international tournament since the 1998 men's World Cup in France, and two years later under the guidance of Shelley Kerr Scotland's women made it to their first World Cup.
Even in the last few weeks, the SWPL – which now features former Caley Jags player Jodie Malcolm – re-launched as an SPFL brand, bringing with it more attention and coverage.
Even more locally, the introduction of a Highlands and Islands League by Scottish Women's Football in 2019 was a ground-breaking step, and over 200 girls are now training on a regular basis in Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle's youth set-ups alone.
Ahead of the return en masse of the Highlands and Islands League this weekend, and the start of Caley Thistle's senior season in the SWF's Championship, The Inverness Courier spoke to some key figures involved in women's football in the area to take a look at how it has grown in the Highlands.
Where we came from
Kim Jappy, ICT goalkeeper
"I used to live down in England, and I got in trouble for playing football.
"Up here I remember playing Cumbernauld Colts in 1996, and we used to have to walk the pitch for any needles before our game even started.
"You will never ever get that now, and obviously the state of council pitches back then are a little bit different to now. We had little changing rooms, so the game is certainly going in the right direction."
Karen Mason, ICT manager and former player
"I wouldn't have had as much exposure as the game has now and probably not as many opportunities.
"There weren't many or any girls or women's teams around. I played in boys' teams up until I hit secondary school, and then I wasn't allowed to play in the boys' team.
"There was only probably one team at the time that I could have gone to, and I was obviously grateful to get that opportunity when it came.
"There has been a drive to bring the standards up. Most of our games would have been at Bught Park, and now it's not acceptable to play in an open, public park.
"You had to pick up after dogs before you played, and that's just not accepted any more."
Signs of change
Iain MacIver, Ross County Girls and Women head coach
"When I came to this area there weren't any school football events. I started a primary school football tournament which was mixed teams – but we had 20 schools at the tournament, probably over 200 kids, and there would only have been a handful of girls at it.
"In the class that I had that year, there were a few girls who were quite into sport, and they said it wasn't fair that there wasn't a girls' football team but there were boys' ones.
"I thought that was fair enough, so I emailed other schools to see if they would want to get a girls' friendly on the go to see how it goes, and we did that.
"Then I started a girls-only primary school football tournament in 2017, and that only had seven schools at it. We did it again the next year, and there were 16, then we did a Highland-wide one and it kept improving from there.
"Because there was a lot of interest, we kept it going and I started a club in Invergordon. If we had 15 at training, one full team, that was a good turn out, but it just grew and grew."
Don Johnstone, ICT under-18s coach
"It was the under-17s when it started, and it's the 18s now, but because it was a brand new team we had to create everything from scratch.
"They went up to under-15s at the time, but a lot of young players were coming through.
"There were big turnouts straight away. There was quite an interest, we ended up with 23 players at one point, so they got split between the under-18s and the development team."
Karen Mason, ICT manager
"There's still a great deal to go in Scotland especially. If you look at the situation in England, the FA has backed them and really funded them the whole time.
"There are still big strides that need to be made by Scottish teams, so that's the main thing that needs to keep going.
"Scotland qualifying for the Euros a few years ago might have been a good thing for the Scottish game, but there aren't really any other major things I can point to.
"It's the exposure that probably made that happen. Games were on telly, the Scottish Women's National Team were playing at Hampden, and there are a lot of different things on show now that allowed that to grow."
Where we are now
Don Johnstone, ICT under-18s coach
"It's not really a case of the older you are, the better – our squad is filled with players that could be in the under-16s, and there are under-14s that train with us that are every bit as capable.
"It's not really about age, it's more about ability.You can tell that there is a big difference technically in the ones coming through just because they've been playing from a younger age.
"Definitely in terms of our 18s, we were all about building a team at first but now we've got a core of players right the way through that we are really excited about.
"We've got a couple of players training with the first team right now who aren't looking out of place at all. It bodes well, and from what we're seeing it's only going to improve. There's more ambition from people and you can see where it's likely to go, which is really exciting."
Iain MacIver, Ross County Girls and Women head coach
"A lot of people knew about us, but up until Easter this year we only did under-12, under-14 and under-16s.
"We started doing younger age groups at Easter, and it's massive. We had about 40 just form P1-3, which in itself is huge – that's a number we would barely have got across all the groups a few years ago.
"There have been the odd few that have dropped out, but they have been more than replaced by new ones coming in.
"We've got quite a large coaching team, I think more than 15 now, to cover all the groups. Some are parents, some are ones who just wanted to get involved in coaching and help. It's a mix of the two.
"That's really good, because you often that if the girls stop playing their parents stop helping as well."
Karen Mason, ICT manager
"The girls have all been watching the Euros, and it does create a wee bit of hype.
"Because it's on TV, you get people talking to you about it that might never have watched much football before.
"The fact that it was in England as well, a lot of our players went down to watch games and be a part of the atmosphere.
"It has been great to be able to see some of the best players in the world in action."
Where we can go
Karen Mason, ICT manager
"Clubs have to realise that they need to invest in their women's teams if they want them to succeed at the level the WSL clubs have in England.
"Men's teams might have to start sharing their facilities, sharing the expertise that they have to allow the women's game to continue to grow.
"Funding as well is obviously massive, whether that's league sponsorships or anything like that that needs to be put in place.
"We're hoping to be fully involved with that new facility – if it does get put in place – at Inverness Royal Academy. Having a designated home just for them is something that not many women's teams can say in the whole of Scotland they have.
"It would allow our academy team to train at the same place, somewhere they know is the hub of women's and girls' football. Having that area will be a massive boost for all the age groups."
Don Johnstone, ICT under-18s coach
"For me, there's obviously the performance leagues – which is the National Academy Programme.
"A goal is to have a team in that from a youth point of view. We would be able to go and play teams outside our regional league, which we're in now.
"If we then produce players that go into the first team, and they get promoted, there are a lot of clubs going semi-pro just now so I'd like to think it would be a realistic ambition for us to go down that road.
"I know there are talks about the facilities, but talking purely in terms of players and standards, I don't really know how far it can go.
"That's the exciting thing, you can't put an actual determination on it, but there's good people in there and it's a really good thing to be involved with even though it's still really in its infancy."
Iain MacIver, Ross County Girls and Women
"I know there have been clubs that have come and gone, but I think we're doing it the right way, building up from the bottom, and we're going to have huge amounts of players coming through.
"It won't be a case of some players leave and we're in trouble, there will be a conveyor belt coming through with 100-odd players at training.
"We want to have an under-18 team and an adult team in the national set-up, and push as far as we can with it.
"All our age groups have huge numbers, and that's what bodes well for the future. The ones in the younger groups right now are going to keep moving up.
"If you look at our youngest group, the under-8s, even if half of them move up we've still got 20, so that's a full squad – it's huge numbers that can support future growth."
