Pirates women get kit thanks to Lottery award
January 29th, 2016
@ Duncolm Photography
The East Kilbride Pirates women’s American Football team have held their first fully kitted practices, thanks to money from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All Scotland grant scheme.
“We’re delighted that the team have received support from Awards for All Scotland,” said Club Chairman Amanda McDonald. “It’s enabled us to buy full kit including helmets, shoulder pads and uniform for 20 players, as well as footballs. We started our women’s team last September and have been blown away by the level of interest. They’ve already taken part in a non-contact flag competition in the last few months of the year, to great success. And we can’t wait to see them in fully-kitted action.”
“Our new challenge is that the team’s popularity is already outstripping the amount of kit we have, so we’ll be looking to fundraise and seek additional funding to expand even further.”
The Pirates’ women are now training for their first full contact season. They’ll be taking part in the British American Football Association’s Sapphire Series – a competition exclusively for women’s contact American Football teams.
The Sapphire series kicks off in February and the Pirates women’s team are in Division 2 North, alongside Edinburgh Wolves, Teeside Steelers and Chester Romans women’s teams. The competition comprises a number of regionally based tournaments.
First up for the Pirates women is a tournament at South Queensferry on 27 February hosted by the Edinburgh Wolves, and then they get a chance to host their own tournament at Hamilton Palace Sports Ground on Saturday 12 March.
@ Duncolm Photography
As well as funding for the women’s team, the Pirates also received a huge boost for their youth and junior programme as part of the same award. Additional funding will allow them to purchase 15 additional sets of kit to help get more players aged 14-19 active and involved in the sport.
Awards for All Scotland is a partnership between sportscotland and Big Lottery Fund. The programme gives out grants of between £500 and £10,000 to projects that bring communities together to enjoy a range of activities.
An Awards for All Scotland spokesperson, said: “Yesterday we announced over £1.2 million of grants that will bring some green shoots help to communities across Scotland by helping them set up and develop a wide spectrum of projects run for and by local people. What is clear is the smallest amount of funding can often make the biggest difference to people’s lives. All of these grants are a great way to show the variety of projects that can be funded through Awards for All for people of all ages.”
If you’re interested in playing for the Pirates youth, junior or women’s team, contact info@piratesfootball.co.uk
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