Weston-super-mare girls are thriving thanks to Bella
Thanks to 13-year-old Bella Whiting’s recruitment efforts, her club, Weston-Super-Mare RFC has a thriving girls’ section.
As a thank you for all her hard work, Bella was recently invited to the Bristol Bears High-Performance Centre and was given a tour by her favourite player, Red Roses and Bristol flyhalf, Holly Aitchison. She was also gifted four tickets to see the Red Roses take on New Zealand at Twickenham later this year.
Submit your community storyBella started playing rugby at age six at Weston-Super-Mare after being inspired by her older brother. Despite being the only girl, Bella fell in love with the game and turned up week in, week out. However, when Bella graduated from the minis, there was no girls’ junior section for her to play in.
Bella’s mum Tracey said: “The choice at Weston was to start a team or leave. For Bella, she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to play at the club that her family had played at before. So, we decided to start a team!”
Bella started by recruiting girls who played in her football team and built from there. Three years since she started, the girls’ section has grown from three girls to over 70. The club has girls’ teams at U12s, U14s, and U16s, and Bella is the captain of the U14s.
Teammate Finlaye said: “She’s a very good captain. She’s loud and supportive, and no matter what you do, you can rely on Bella.”
Bella said: “My future hopes are to have a massive senior women’s team so we can show Weston how much we’ve grown and what we’ve achieved.”
“I’d love to keep playing, my dream is to play for Bears or England.”
