Make It Wild!
Michaela Dampies, South Africa
Badgers Football Academy was created 5 years ago, and is Cape Town’s first women run, women focused football club. Badgers started in September 2017 with 10 women playing together and now have over one hundred members, ranging from 13 to 41 years old. Goal Click spoke to its founder and some of its members about their hopes for the future of women’s football in South Africa.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your football life?
I am Micheala Dampies (also known as Magic Micks), a 26 year old female from Cape Town. I joined the Badgers team approximately a year ago, but I played soccer in primary and high school.
I started playing soccer when I was around 14 years old, playing mixed-gender then because there was no girls division. My coach tried to open an all-girls team but unfortunately at the time there was not much interest in the area so we stuck to mixed-gender and fives.
A friend of mine started playing for Badgers and only ever spoke positively about the club and the people. I also heard about it via an NGO, Khwela Academy, that also introduced the girls they were training to the club. I started playing with the club, and later also became Community Manager, helping to build relationships on and off the field to make sure everyone feels welcome, included, and safe.
What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?
I mainly captured the 5-a-side games with the girls. The beauty of Badgers social games is that they are organised by level and are very accommodating. If your intention is to grow with football you control where you place yourself until YOU are ready for more intense games. Every game is accommodating regardless of level and we play mixed social games too (male and female).
Displayed in the images are our humans, lovely humans. I tried to capture the intimate moments with the ladies, be it during training or an actual 5-a-side game. The most captivating thing for me about Badgers is that everyone is always happy to see one another and if a Badger has been absent for a while it is almost guaranteed that someone in the team will go and check in with them.
My favourite image is one with the juniors training. All my life I loved working with girls younger than me, mostly in their teens or getting there. I guess this is the age where I struggled with a sense of belonging and is the time when females become vulnerable and feel misunderstood. Creating a platform for them where they can freely express and be themselves wholesomely is so beautiful to witness.
What role does football and Badgers FC play in your life and in your community?
It means escaping the norm, feeling free, releasing some stress after a hard day's work, having a beer with mates after training or a game, and having social time with people you can now call friends/family. Most importantly it means come as you are; shape, size, gender preference you name it.
Personally I see myself as very shy and an introverted human. However Badger members tend to disagree. Badgers has been a rock for me. I joined Badgers when I felt like I did not necessarily have a direction where fitness and fun were combined, there was nothing that caught my attention like Badgers does. As per my peers, we absolutely love Badgers.
Romaney and Leone (Founder of Badgers, and Operations Manager) are both absolutely lovely humans, and because they are, we have automatically just followed them. I see them as two powerful women leading the pack!! I am super stoked for what the future holds for the Badgers. Moreover, Badgers works for all individuals. I feel on cloud nine whenever I see the success of this women-run football club. I also wanted to put my contribution into the development of Badgers and therefore was more than happy to take up the role of Community Manager.
In the community where I am from we probably only have one female team, so it was nice to join Badgers and know that there are more female teams out there. Female soccer is not necessarily a big deal here, however with Badgers we are a pretty big deal!
My ambitions are to continue growing with Badgers and help younger girls reach their full potential with football.
What is the future for women's football in South Africa?
The future for women's football would look bright and beautiful if we had people take it as seriously as they take men's football. In South Africa women’s football is more underrated and less popular than men’s. It is not talked or buzzed about often and not promoted as it should be. We need to make a scene about females in soccer, and have them on advertisements like you do with the men. Make it wild!
