Women’s / youth spotlight: Natasha Young in focus

When Natasha Young started kicking a ball about with her eldest son in her garden, she had no idea that this would be the start of a journey that would eventually lead her to coaching, not one, but two Newhaven Youth teams.

Despite being a life-long football fanatic, during early adulthood Natasha had found herself drifting away from the sport she loves. She hadn’t played competitively for a team since leaving college at the age of 17 and believed her days of being involved with the sport in any capacity were long over.

Then the eldest of her two sons started to show an interest in playing the game and everything changed.

“When my eldest started kicking a ball around when he was five, I began to realise just how much I missed it,” explains Natasha. “He started playing for Newhaven when he was seven, while his younger brother joined Mini Dockers around the same time.

“I loved watching them play and while I realised that I could no longer play myself, I also realised I could still get involved with their football.”

Before she knew it, Natasha went from passing on advice to her children in the garden to actively getting involved with their teams. “I offered my eldest son’s [then] manager some help with training, helping out the goalkeeper and that sort of thing, and things just snowballed from there,” she continues.

Today, Natasha is the coach of both Newhaven’s Under 8s and Under 10s teams (the sides her two sons play for) and is relishing the feeling of once again being involved in the sport after such a long absence.

“Watching both the Under 8s and Under 10s teams play and improve is just so rewarding,” she enthuses. “Obviously I do have a lot of pride watching my own two play, but I'm also proud of both teams as a whole. When it comes to matches all the players are like my children in a way!”

Unfortunately, Natasha’s own memories of playing football in her youth are rather more mixed. As a girl, playing what was still largely considered a boys’ sport back then, she admits to it being quite difficult to gain acceptance among some of her peers.

“My primary school only had a ‘boys’ team. Girls were not allowed to play,” she recalls. “I can't remember if the local teams actually allowed girls to play or not, but I don't remember seeing any. I used to play ‘matches’ down the park with some friends against other groups of kids, but the boys on my team didn’t tend to pass to me unless they knew me and therefore knew I could play. The opposition didn't tend to mark me, although this was sometimes an advantage!”

When she was 10, Natasha joined Lewes Girls – one of the few local teams in the area – who she continued playing for until she was 15. Disappointingly, the team folded at Under 16s due to a lack of players.

She then played for her college team between the ages of 16 and 17, before her playing days came to an abrupt end.

Or so she thought.

Since becoming involved with Newhaven, Natasha has actually been given the opportunity to pull on her boots again. She’s played in a couple of charity matches for the club; scoring in her first appearance, proving you never lose it!

However, she rules out the chances of making a full-time return to playing, maintaining that her passion now revolves around coaching and ferrying her children to training and matches.

Who knows, there may even be a third team for Natasha to become involved with in the not-too-distant future. A new addition has recently been added to the Young garden kickabouts in the shape of her two-year-old daughter.

If the youngest member of the Young clan does choose to follow in her Mum’s footsteps, Natasha acknowledges that the opportunities for her to play will be very different to what she experienced as a young girl. “There are a lot more girls’ teams about now, and mixed teams as well. Football’s not just mainly for boys anymore like it was when I was younger.”

The Lionesses success in the summer should also help to grow the women’s and girl’s game even further, although Natasha believes more can still be done to improve attitudes pertaining to football for women.

“I think people need to continue supporting the women in league games at all levels, not just England because they won the Euros,” she says. “It can be hard to follow women's football, as games are not on TV anywhere near as often as the men’s are. If more young girls saw women on the TV most weekends, like they see the men, then it would surely get more girls falling in love with the game and thinking about getting involved. It might also help some parents who still have the ‘football is for boys’ attitude realise that this simply isn’t the case.”

Regardless of whether her daughter does follow in her footsteps, for now Natasha is more than content to be involved in football again.

“Having my children has reignited my love for football,” she says. “As well as our garden kick abouts we also really enjoy watching our favourite team on TV together. I just love that we have football in common and that it's something we can share!”