St Mary's University FA Women's High Performance Football Centre Hosts Women's Football Cup

On Thursday 17th February the FA Women's High Performance Football Centre (WHPFC) at St Marys University, Twickenham hosted the London Colleges Women's Football Cup 5-a-side tournament.

Jodie Whitlock-Stark, the WHPFC Coach Development Officer, ran the day long football tournament attended by female players and coaches from 12 London colleges.

The event brought together over 100 young people to engage in a celebration of women’s football.

Jodie oversaw the 5-a-side tournament in the afternoon with the help of a team of the Sports St Mary’s staff and St Mary’s University undergraduate students.

Earlier in the day, the event began with two research workshops by St Mary’s University academics Katrine Kryger, Jess Boyd and Abbe Brady. The workshops were informed by recent research projects and focused on footwear design and injury prevention, and also effective coaching and culture in the women’s and girls’ game.

This event coincided with the start of a week-long international women’s Football tournament featuring England, Canada (Olympic Champions), Germany and Spain ahead of England hosting the UEFA Women’s European Championships this summer.

Speaking about the tournament Jodie said, “the event went really well and evaluations from players and coaches have been incredibly positive. We’ve already received requests asking when the next event will be.”

Head of Department of Psychology and Pedagogic Science, Dr Abbe Brady said, "we are delighted and the whole day was a terrific showcase of our St Mary's community coming together in a knowledge exchange event, sharing research findings and collecting new data, as well as connecting with 12 colleges and involving our own students in the running of the football tournament event.