From footy to axe-throwing – meet grassroot heroes putting girls’ sport on map
AS a football-mad girl, Jade Hannan loved to play – but her team struggled to find other female sides to take on in matches.
Now a 36-year-old mum of two, she is making sure daughter Ivy, seven, and her team-mates can enjoy matches as often as possible as manager of Lordswood Girls U8s.
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Jade says: “I just wanted the same opportunities my brother had but it was harder for girls.
“My team amaze me with how well they are progressing.
“We concentrate on increasing their skill level and love for the game. It’s not just about goals and winning.”
The youth coach is one of ten winners of our grassroots sporting heroes competition for International Women’s Day 2024, chosen from hundreds of entries.
Launched by Olympic gold boxer Nicola Adams in February, it celebrates the extraordinary efforts of people who champion women and girls in sport.
Winners were nominated by the public and selected by a panel of experts.
Each will receive a prize of £1,000 to support their sporting initiative.
Alongside her job as a therapeutic radiographer, Jade, who coaches twice a week, is an avid Charlton Athletic supporter and runs a group for female supporters ranging from their teens to 90.
‘Soul-destroying’
She is also an ambassador for Her Game Too, a campaign to stamp out sexism in sport, and has fundraised to provide a sensory space at her club’s ground.
This means families with neurodiverse and disabled children have a calming space to escape to during matches, if they need it.
Jade, from Lordswood, Kent, was nominated by Daniela Golding, whose daughter Sienna has autism and spina bifida and plays with Lordswood U8s.
She says: “Jade is so passionate about inclusion and my little girl’s confidence has grown so much. It brings us to tears whenever she scores a goal.”
While Jade is helping youngsters to get into football, mum-of-three Toko Robbins works at the other end of the spectrum, having set up a women’s walking football club.
After playing the game with her brother as a child, she still remembers her heartbreak when, dressed in her kit, she was taken by her dad to try out at a club.
Toko, 48, from Poole, Dorset, says: “They wouldn’t let me play because I was a girl. It was soul-destroying.”
When her own children started playing football, Toko’s childhood experience meant she didn’t really get involved.
[The football club] made me wish myself and other women had had the opportunities when we were younger
Toko Robbins
She says: “Then one day I went down and saw my eight-year-old daughter in goal, getting compliments. She was the same age I was when I was told I couldn’t play.
“It made me wish myself and other women had had the opportunities when we were younger.”
It inspired her to set up Lilliput Women’s Walking Football in June 2023, with sessions in the park every Monday lunchtime.
Her mother Margaret, 78, is one of the players, while others include women getting back into fitness after a baby, injury or illness.
Toko has also started coaching the Lilliput Girls’ football team, which her daughter plays for.
“For many of the women it was a dream they didn’t know they had, because it had been buried so deep,” she says.
“Many of us were told we couldn’t play. We thought there was something wrong with us — but it was society.
“This prize validates where we are coming from and what we have been through.”
Netball coach Laura Sydney, 42, is also keen to make her sport accessible for all.
The mum of two, who teaches deaf people, says: “I want women to have a chance to be active, be part of a team and have that time for themselves.”
Laura, is chair of Doncaster and District Netball League in South Yorks, where she lives, and last year she started an initiative called Netball 4 All.
She says: “Lots of women were being referred to me as they wanted to get back into netball for the first time since school — or maybe try it for the first time — and didn’t know where to start.
“It’s not easy to join an established team so this allows everyone to learn the ropes.”
Netball 4 All now has two evening sessions a week, attended by around 150 women — with a monthly “bring your bloke” night to convert men to the game.
“I have a mum and her 18-year-old daughter who attend,” she says.
“She wrote me a letter to say how much she treasures that quality time once a week before her child leaves home.
Many of us were told we couldn’t play. We thought there was something wrong with us — but it was society
Toko Robbins
“I think it’s very special for teen girls to see older women enjoying team sports and feeling good about their bodies.”
In contrast, boxing coach Terri Kelly, 60, admits she hated the sport as a young woman — until she met two teenage boys whose lives it transformed.
Forty years later, the English teacher is a dedicated champion of women’s boxing, helping the next generation to gain self-worth and stay away from crime.
Her club even helped Nicola Adams’ progression.
Terri, from Haringey, North London, says: “We’ve come a long way but I still want officials to view them as boxers not ‘women boxers’.
Terri is the founder of This Girl Can Box and co-organiser of Haringey Box Cup.
She was nominated by Denise Coe, who says: “Terri’s tireless efforts have reshaped the landscape of female boxing, cultivating a community where women not only find solace and purpose but also thrive as athletes and leaders.”
Fellow boxing coach Richard Grigg, 35, has transformed Bideford Boxing Club in Devon from a men-only space to a community that has an equal split of members.
The club has everything from fitness sessions, where women train alongside men, to a group for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The dad of three was nominated by a 56-year-old member, who is a survivor of domestic abuse.
She told judges: “This man not only completely returned my self-respect, he even got me sparring with men and his son Rocky.
‘It changes lives’
“Bideford Boxing Club has professionals like Billy Stanbury and people like me. It’s inclusive and we are all treated the same, with love and positivity.”
Richard, a former postman, volunteers for 50 hours a week alongside his paid coaching.
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He says: “This sport changes lives. It makes women feel powerful and can sometimes offer therapy.
“I get them to train alongside the men to show everyone they are just as good, if not better.
“I have two daughters and the eldest one comes training here.
“She doesn’t want to compete in boxing but it has given her the confidence to excel in other sports.”
After coaching her three sons at rugby, Tiffany Honeychurch turned her skills to getting their female peers into the game, starting the Penryn Girls’ team last year.
The 38-year-old life coach only had the chance to take up the sport when she joined the Navy.
“Coaching girls’ rugby is completely different to coaching boys,” says Tiff, from Falmouth, Cornwall.
“So many of the girls lack confidence, but rugby is making such a difference to their lives.”
Tiff, who also plays for Penryn Ladies’ first team as a prop, adds: “None of us played rugby at school.
So many of the girls lack confidence, but rugby is making such a difference to their lives
Tiffany Honeychurch
“But rugby is going into schools now and I want to see this happening more so that every girl has the opportunity.”
Kat Howe is passionate about increasing participation in a more unusual sport — axe throwing.
The 32-year-old civil servant is now the highest-ranking female in Europe and the only European to qualify for the World Championships last year.
She set up and runs the Continent’s first ladies-only axe-throwing league and has organised the first International Axe Throwing Federation Grand Slam tournament outside of North America.
Kat, from Co Durham, says: “I got into axe-throwing when my husband Carl and I entered a competition — and I was better than him!
“When girls first come along, they are usually apprehensive because it’s male-dominated.
“Axe-throwing is such a social sport and brings out confidence in people.
“I want to put us on the map and give girls a platform, a voice, a space where they can be recognised as athletes.”
Trainee sport psychologist Briony Brock, 28, has grown the girls’ team at Shepherd’s Bush Cricket Club from 12 members to 60, making it the largest in London.
The coach also got sponsorship so they could have a kit with dark trousers after realising that wearing white was off-putting for teens.
Briony, from Holland Park, West London, says: “The girls used to be an after-thought, but what they needed was a leg up, because they have not had the opportunities the boys have enjoyed.
“We’ve worked hard to make cricket accessible for them.”
Inclusivity is also important for Eleanor Boden, 35, from Glasgow.
As chief executive of the Scottish Racing Academy, she is working with the British Horseracing Association to stamp out sexual harassment across the industry and has also partnered with Police Scotland to give people in care the chance to gain qualifications and jobs.
She says: “Women supporting women is something I’m passionate about.
“We’ve had people get involved who had never touched a horse before.
“One girl came to us at 14 and is now in a full-time, work-based provision and receiving on-the-job training.
“People think horse riding is just about jockeys, but there are so many other opportunities.”
Samin Mughal, AGE, from Loughborough, East Mids, is also devoted to introducing underrepresented groups to exercise, after setting up Loughborough Female Fitness during the 2021 lockdowns.
The initiative gives women — particularly Muslims who might have cultural barriers to sport — a supportive environment to exercise outdoors.
It has grown from once-a-week walks to twice-weekly ones, as well as basketball, aerobics, boxing and spin classes.
She has also led quarterly hikes in the Peak District and a residential youth development retreat in the Lake District.
She was nominated by Emma Hatfield, who said: “Harnessing experience from her higher education and research background, coupled with a fierce determination, she has created courses for girls to develop leadership skills and break the mould of thinking sports are no place for women and girls.”
Former Lioness Lianne Sanderson, who acted as host for The Sun’s International Women’s Day judging panel, said: “To know we had hundreds of entries is fantastic.
Women supporting women is something I’m passionate about
Eleanor Boden
“It just goes to show how many people out there care about women’s sport.”
The talkSPORT contributor added: “I love that there are football clubs for females from the age of seven up to 77 and it’s all thanks to individuals like these winners who take time out from their busy lives to put something back into their local community.”
IT’S A WALK IN THE PARK
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Toko, with the Lilliput Women’s Walking Football crew.
Toko, who was told she couldn’t play football as a girl, set up the group to give women the opportunities they had been denied when young. She coaches a girls’ team too.
BOWLING THEM OVER
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Briony has grown numbers attending the girls’ team at Shepherd’s Bush Cricket Club.
She also changed the kit from white, which she found was putting teens off.
BACK OF THE NET
Jade manages Lordswood Girls U8s and is passionate about including neurodiverse and disabled children.
She is an ambassador for the Her Game Too campaign and runs a club for female supporters of Charlton Athletic
PACKING A PUNCH
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Richard, here with national champ Ella Peach and coach Danny Passmore, has helped make Bideford Boxing Club one where women are welcome. It also has a group for people with Parkinson’s.
LET’S GIVE IT A TRY
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Tiffany only took up rugby when she joined the Navy.
She set up Penryn Girls’ team last year and says the sport is great for helping girls gain confidence.
RING THE CHANGES
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Terri founded This Girl Can Box to empower women through sport.
Having disliked boxing as a young woman, she changed her mind after seeing how it could transform people’s lives.
SHE’S A CLASS AXE
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Kat set up and runs Europe’s first ladies-only axe-throwing club.
She says she wants to give women a platform in what is a male-dominated sport.
NET GAINS FOR ALL
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Netball coach Laura started the Netball 4 All initiative and believes it’s great for teenage girls to see older women enjoying team sports and feeling good about their bodies
FIT FOR PURPOSE
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Fitness group founder Samin said: “I’m glad to accept this award in recognition of the wonderful women and amazing work that goes into making grassroots physical activity/sport access a reality.”
GALLOPING TO EQUALITY
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Academy head Eleanor liaises with other agencies to give women and girls the chance to get involved in horseracing, providing them with both educational and work-based opportunities