Stepping Out Of My Comfort Zone
Nicole Gwambure, 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?
My name is Nicole Gwambure and I am 15 years old. I am originally from Zimbabwe and currently live in Cape Town. I had no experience with football. However, after attending Badgers trials and seeing what Badgers FC was all about, I gave it a shot and I have fallen in love with football ever since.
I joined Badgers in early January 2022, after hearing about the trials through a teacher from my school who is a senior at the soccer club. I had only played soccer for my school’s team for a term in 2020, before COVID-19. I was encouraged to go to the Badgers trials because I like a challenge and stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new.
My ambitions are to stick with Badgers and probably join their senior team in the year to come - I strive to improve my skill levels.
What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?
What I was trying to convey through the photos taken was unity in the Badgers through football. Our passion for football connects and binds us as one.
Most of these photos were taken on Badgers home ground at social matches between seniors and juniors or at practice sessions. The people in the photos are a mix of Badgers juniors and senior ladies. In one of the photos you can see two girls watching their teammates anxiously and anticipating their moves and motivating them to have fun as well as try their hardest.
I showed a group of juniors posing all together. Everyone comes from different backgrounds but we are all joined together because of one common interest...football. Football has helped many of us find our escape from our day to day lives as well as make friends who are like family that you can always count on.
What role does football and Badgers play in your community and region?
Football helps prevent children in my region from doing self destructive things like drugs and joining gangs. Kids can feel like they belong somewhere without having to follow the route everyone else is.
Football for me is my escape from reality, probably my therapy. I enjoy football not only because of making friends but because I get to learn very important values like teamwork and communication which I can use every day.
Badgers gave me something to look forward to throughout my week, teaching me how to control my emotions and increased many of my teammates' self esteem and confidence in those who lacked it.
I have made a lot of genuine friendships through Badgers, to a point where I consider most of these girls my sisters made through football. I love how you can always ask for help without being judged - it could be help with soccer or outside of soccer, but my teammates are very willing. Once someone was short of taxi fare and everyone who was around helped by sharing whatever they had to make sure that our teammate got home safely, and that showed me our unity as friends outside of soccer.
What is the future for women's football in South Africa?
The number of women playing football in Cape Town is only going to multiply because of the increasing opportunities for women to play the sport. This is significant because this promotes female empowerment and breaks gender stereotypes against women playing football.
Some women get scouted to play for the national team, but at the same time there are not many opportunities because female sports are shadowed due to sexism in the sports industry.
