by Chloe Mcleod

In 2021 Alice approached the students union showing an interest in blind football. As a football club, we have not worked with someone who is visually impaired before. Our first team captain, Emma Collins, specialises in disability sport so I (Chloe McLeod) and Emma worked together to come up with a plan with the students union and Glyn Harding in order to involve Alice in the club. Our ethos as a club stands that everyone is welcome no matter ability, ethnicity, sexuality or disability. Once we had established a plan, we agreed we would train on a Friday morning with Alice starting from 7 am-7:30 am just so it wasn’t too intense. We then decided it would benefit the club if everyone could understand the importance of communication when you can’t see where your opposition is. This helped our communication as a team, so we are very thankful to Alice for introducing us to blind football.

A few sessions in and we could see a massive improvement in Alice. Emma began coaching her weekly just before Christmas. After Christmas Alice had her trial for the England Women’s Blind team and to our delight she was offered a place! Therefore a massive thanks to Emma Collins for her coaching, the SU and Glyn Harding for their inspiration and to Alice herself for making the squad.