Clube Desportivo Marítimo Olhanense has the first all-female team to participate in a championship of the Algarve Football Association, a fact that marks the current 2018/2019 sporting season.
Beatriz Ramos, Raquel Águas, Rafaela Rita, Lara Bravo, Mariana Inácio, Sara Inácio, Melissa Águas, Margarida Dias, Maria Eufrázio, Carolina Flora and Joana Santos are the athletes from Marítimo Olhanense who are competing in the Under-12 Children's Championship .
Playing in series 4 of the 2nd phase of the competition, the team led by Ricardo Viegas and Herminia Cruz only has defeats, something that, for the coaches, is not relevant.
«If we entered this project thinking about the results, I think we would give up on the second round, when we lost by 15 and by 20. But, on the contrary, this project, at this initial stage, is much more than that: it is a pure bet on training, both sports and personal», says Ricardo Viegas.
“We may not yet be achieving positive results, but we are a team, in the true essence of the word, and that is the most important thing”, he adds.
The training began in November and, since then, the evolution of young athletes, according to the coaches, "is already quite notorious".
“Many of them didn't know how to dominate or shoot a ball and some had never even had contact with a soccer ball. Nowadays, they love it and all they want is to train», says Hermínia Cruz.
And the three weekly training sessions have had an effect: «it's a pleasure to see that currently we don't suffer big routs, that we've already managed to score goals and even have an advantage. But what I like most is to see them happy when the game is over. Regardless of the result, they are always happy», says Ricardo Viegas.
The real opportunity for the formation of the CD Marítimo Olhanense women's team came when the club chaired by Fernanda Viegas received a phone call from a local Social Institution.
"They needed to put the girls to play sports and some chose football and Maritime", reports the coach. Joining the new athletes to those who were already at the club training with boys and believing in the "word of mouth" to welcome more young athletes, the club considered that it was able to assemble a group for Football 7.
“We have had several contacts from girls who want to belong to our team. We started with six athletes and have been growing”, says Hermínia Cruz, who says that one of the objectives of the project, which they want to continue, is to “try to insert them in the community” and, “through football, show them. A better world".
«We feel that we are doing something productive, not only at a sporting level but also at a social level, and that gives us great pleasure», concludes Ricardo Viegas.
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