Hoppers Crossing will make its long-awaited return to women’s soccer this year.
The Reds have spent nine years in the wilderness and are well overdue to have a team playing at Grange Reserve in one of the fastest-growing female sports.
“It’s been nine years since Hoppers have had a women’s team and, in those nine years, they’d always try and never end up getting one up,” Reds’ coach Sean Sumner told Star Weekly.
“The men have won premierships three times in the past four seasons, and now it’s time the club had a women’s team.”
Reds’ president Steve Lambrakakis is the one who turned the plan into reality.
Lambrakakis went looking for an experienced women’s coach to lead the resurrection of the team and looked no further than the homegrown Sumner.
At 26, Sumner is still young in football terms, but he has enjoyed great success as coach of Truganina.
When he arrived at Truganina in the middle of the 2014 season, the Hornets were rock- bottom of the women’s state league 3 ladder, but he managed to pull them out of the depths and into safety.
Last season, Sumner ramped up the training, getting a three-nights-a-week commitment from players, to take them to an undefeated pre-season campaign, cup glory and third in the league.
“I pretty much got a team that was fighting relegation two years earlier to finish top three in state league 3,” Sumner said.
“We did the three nights a week training at Truganina last year. The players were a bit iffy at the start, but one night would be fitness and two nights would be ball work, and they really got into it. They were all pretty pumped that their hard work paid off.”
Sumner has plans for immediate success at the Reds this season. The team will begin in state league 4, with no intention of sticking around the bottom tier.
“I coach to teach. I want all the girls to learn and have fun, but I think when you’re winning, it’s more fun,” Sumner said. “Our goal is to win it straight away and get promoted in the first year.”
To that end, Sumner has assembled a competitive team, at least on paper, with a number of players coming from already established clubs. The recruiting process has gone so well in the off-season that the Reds could end up having two teams.
They still need more players to sign between now and the start of the season for that to eventuate.
Sumner has taken to social media to generate interest in the new team, and it has resulted in big numbers at training.
“I found all it takes is one ‘like’ on Facebook, which leads to two likes and now we’ve got 200 likes on the page and I’ve got 25 girls coming for trials already. We’re close to having two teams, but we’ve definitely got one for 2016 and that’s a big thing for the club given that it’s been nine years.
“I’ve had a few girls who have followed me from different clubs. We’ve got four from Cairnlea, which is in state 1, a couple from North Sunshine Eagles in state 3 and a couple from Truganina from state 3, so we’ve got a pretty strong mix of girls coming over.”
Sumner’s own playing career is on ice for a while. At Truganina, he played in the men’s team and coached the women’s, but a knee injury shelved those plans for at least 12 months.
