Students Push for Female Soccer on Campus




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  • 2015-10-19 20:00:32
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="705"] Female soccer has become popular on college campuses. Pictured: A player from the Dordt College women's soccer team. Image source: dordt.edu[/caption] When during the AUBG Olympics last year a few girls just started passing a ball, more and more joined the game and many gathered to watch.  This is how the idea for women's soccer at AUBG came to life. Although the idea is still undeveloped, it already has supporters who think it would be great for the female students to have their own soccer club. The initiator is Karina Barambayeva, a second-year student, who is more experienced in other sports but has always loved soccer. She said the thought of introducing women’s soccer regularly has been on her mind but she did not manage to gather as many girls as she wished. “The main idea is to play, train and have fun but not to compete necessarily,” Barambayeva said. An obstacle she faces is the differences in  the girls’ schedules. She believes establishing an official club will be a solution to the problem if they manage to set a routine for regular meetings.  In addition, Barambayeva thinks that as a club, the girls will have more privileges and will finally have the chance to reserve a time slot for training sessions in the ABF Sports Hall which is usually occupied by other sports teams. So far there are 15 girls who liked the idea and want to join the women's soccer club, but Barambayeva is still trying to find others who might be interested. She intends to make a more serious step toward her goal and establish a club by the beginning of the next semester. Representatives of the AUBG Soccer League approve of the idea. Mario Grachenov, the President of the Student Government and the Soccer League, said that he will be happy if a women’s soccer team or even a whole league is formed. He mentioned a girl from the U.S. visiting AUBG who had played semi-professionally. She joined a game on campus and was "no worse" than the 5 boys on her team, according to Grachenov. “Such a team would be interesting to watch," he said. "It would gather many spectators.” Grachenov thinks other male students might not be so enthusiastic about the idea. Based on his observations during that game, the others always kept in mind that they played against a girl and even stayed aside from her. Though, she deserved to be treated as equal because of her skills. Amir Tazhinov, the co-president of the Soccer League, has personally spoken to Barambayeva, so he is familiar with her idea and supports it. In his opinion, it would be difficult for girls to play with boys because “every male team would be playing gently against a girls’ team.” He also thinks such a female team would have many supporters. “The problem is that not many girls are interested in playing,” Tazhinov said. “They can support or watch games, but playing is different.” He thinks it is an interesting idea but there should be somebody who will propose it first.