From Four Girls to 38
What started with four girls has grown into a 38-player all-girls grassroots team — and Skirlaugh Girls are determined to build a pathway that allows those girls to keep playing for as long as they want to.
Four girls.
That's where Skirlaugh Girls began.
The coaches who started it, Wayne Harris and his daughter Gracie, never imagined quite how quickly those numbers would grow.
Today, 38 girls aged between four and eight are part of the team, with new players continuing to arrive each week.
But the number itself isn't really the story.
The story is what those 38 girls are finding along the way.
Skirlaugh Girls is an all-girls grassroots team, although the girls currently play against boys and mixed teams where they're able to.
From the beginning, the aim has been simple: give girls the opportunity to discover rugby, make friends, build confidence and, perhaps most importantly, see that rugby is a sport for them too.
As Jade Sheppard, Team Manager of Skirlaugh Girls, tells us, what began as a small group has become something much bigger.
“It's become a community.”
They've watched girls who were initially very shy grow in confidence, develop a love for rugby and become incredibly proud of being part of the team.
That change can be difficult to measure.
There isn't a league table for confidence.
No statistic for friendship.
But for a grassroots team, those things matter just as much as what happens on the pitch.
Their ambition is to build a pathway through every age group, from their youngest players right through to open age.
The dream is that some of the girls who started with them at four could eventually find themselves playing senior — or even professional — women's rugby.
But there's a very real problem sitting underneath that ambition.
At the moment, the girls can continue playing against boys' and mixed teams. In recent months, a few all-girls teams have also begun to appear within the leagues, sometimes bringing their girls together specifically to play Skirlaugh.
But when the girls turn nine and move into tackle rugby, the situation becomes more difficult.
Unless more all-girls teams form, they are likely to have to join a Yorkshire girls' league and travel further to find regular opposition.
That's the gap Skirlaugh Girls want to help solve.
As girls get older, opportunities to continue playing with the friends and teammates they've grown up with can become harder to find.
The team already has an older girl in one of its mixed teams who has played since she was four. Because she is a girl, she will eventually have to leave that team and her friends and teammates behind to find a girls' team.
Skirlaugh Girls don't want that to happen to their players.
They're trying to change that.
And now Skirlaugh Girls are thinking about what comes next.
The aim is to create a pathway where girls can continue playing together for their club for as long as they want to.
Because starting again somewhere else can be enough to make a young player question whether she wants to continue at all.
And that matters.
For Wayne Harris, one of the people who started Skirlaugh Girls, the whole idea has always been about giving young girls the same opportunities as boys.
“It has never been about me. It’s always been about young girls getting the same opportunity as boys.”
He also wanted the girls to make the kind of memories that stay with them beyond rugby — through friendships, experiences and everything that happens around being part of a team.
“Somebody just needed to sow the seed to allow it to grow.”
That seed has certainly grown.
The team is passionate about growing women's rugby beyond Skirlaugh too.
They want other clubs to look at what they've created and think:
“We could do this too.”
They want to see more girls picking up a rugby ball and more clubs creating opportunities specifically for girls.
If that happens, they'd be incredibly proud.
Because for Skirlaugh Girls, this isn't simply about creating another rugby team.
It's about confidence.
Friendships.
Belonging.
And showing young girls that there is a place for them in rugby, just as much as there is for boys.
Gracie, who has coached the team alongside her dad, Wayne, knows from her own experience what rugby can give young women.
“I know just how much the sport can give you — not only in terms of confidence and skills, but the friendships, memories and sense of belonging that come with being part of a team.”
Watching the girls grow has made the experience particularly rewarding for her. She says she's incredibly proud of the determination, courage and passion they show each week, and hopes she has been able to inspire them in the same way rugby inspired her.
What began with four girls is now 38.
And they're only just getting started.
But there is another change coming.
On 17 October, Skirlaugh Girls will hold a presentation — and it will also be a goodbye to the two people who started it all.
Wayne and Gracie are leaving the team.
For the girls and their families, it will be a bittersweet moment.
They've watched something that began with just four girls become a community of 38 young players, and the foundations they've helped build will now be carried forward by those who remain.
Gracie says she will always be cheering the girls on from the sidelines.
Perhaps that's one of the most meaningful things a grassroots coach can leave behind.
Not just a team.
But the belief that the team can keep growing.
Four girls became 38.
Now Skirlaugh Girls want to make sure those 38 have somewhere to go.
“I’ll always be cheering them on from the sidelines and can’t wait to see where their rugby journey takes them next.”
WITH THANKS TO:
Jade Sheppard
Team Manager, Skirlaugh Girls
Thank you for sharing the story of Skirlaugh Girls with XV Style.
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