For the love of the game

A young Wellsford woman is making her mark in local football as a coach at Wellsford AFC, with a clear message: Passion and dedication matter more than gender.

Twenty-year-old Samantha Davis, who was born in Auckland and grew up in Snells Beach, kicked her first football at the age of three after receiving her first pair of boots from a family friend. From that moment, she fell in love with the game.

“I joined my first team at six, and they were all boys except for me and another girl,” Samantha says.

During her school years, Samantha played as many sports as she could, but football gave her a different feeling. It was then that she began to realise it was her true passion.

However, she recalls receiving many negative comments in those early years such as “women shouldn’t play football if they can’t handle it” or that her opinion about the game did not matter. But this never discouraged her.

“My own teammates used to tell me this. I also had an experience with a coach who started treating me differently because I was selected for a team when his son wasn’t,” she says. “I think nowadays, men and women are seen more equally in sport than before. I don’t really notice the difference between boys and girls – for me, they are all players.”

Not content with being only on the pitch, Samantha also felt she had much to contribute from the sidelines.

“Before starting college, I knew that I wanted to be even more involved in football, so I decided to ask the principal of my primary school if they needed a coach,” she says.

“None of the players in the first two teams I coached had ever played before, and, unbelievably, the youngest team ended up finishing third that season. I was astonished and so proud of them, especially because both my brothers were in the team.”

Sharing that experience with her brothers also inspired her mother to get involved as a coach, and they even ended up coaching together on one occasion.

Samantha also acknowledges that without her mother’s support, she would never have achieved everything she set out to do.

For Samantha, football is more than just a game, and she hopes to become more professionally involved in the medium to long term.

“I completed a Women in Football leadership programme, where I met other women coaches who really inspired me to keep going.”

This season will represent a double challenge for her, as she will not only be coaching the under-10 team at Wellsford AFC, but also representing the club as a player.

She describes herself as a “24/7 football girl”, showing that football is not just one of her passions, but a central part of her life.