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AS Arsenal Yellow’s vice-captain Tamara Kawash lifted the GulfWeekly trophy with utter joy, cheers from her team mates echoed across the room.
Arsenal Yellow was crowned undefeated champions of the Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain Ladies League after 12 weeks of thrilling competition between five fierce competing teams at a presentation evening.
Tamara, 15, who stood in for caption Jen Gilbert who is away on holiday, said: “It’s brilliant – I’m over the moon!”
The first Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain Ladies League award ceremony was held at the Med Cafe in Budaiya on Saturday evening.
It was hosted by school director Paul Shipwright, with GulfWeekly Editor Stan Szecowka, handing out trophies, medals and certificates to the teams and players.
The evening kicked off with a slide show of match-day images taken by GulfWeekly photographer Ryan Bayona.
The league’s runner-up team was Joga Bonito who also received the ‘Fair Play Award’ for their impressive sportsmanship.
The Jogas, who seemed to be collecting awards all night, had also won the knock-out cup competition, which also featured the Saudi Arabian side, Eastern Flames. The cup runners-up were Desert Divas.
Every week the referees cast their votes on the most impressive performances. At the conclusion of the season they were added up for the ‘Player of the League’ accolade. The contenders were Amanda Kurtz from Desert Divas, St Christopher’s Intermediate Rawan Al Saegh, Arsenal Yellow’s Darya Vyshegorodskaya, Alaa Al Durazi from Joga Bonito and Arsenal Red’s Alaa Al Alawi. Reema Al Qassab took home the trophy to tremendous applause.
Referees John Mackenzie and Gazz Davidson were also honoured for all their efforts.
The first national women’s football league was staged every Monday evening at the Batelco Sporting Ground in Hamala, launched by Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain to give soccer-mad females the opportunity for competitive seven-a-side action from squads of 10.
The league’s top hotshot with 25 goals, Arsenal coach and Yellow team’s midfielder, Deena Rahman, said: “It has been great to see more than 50 ladies and girls taking part and we hope this will encourage even more to join in next season.”
Following the success of the inaugural league a new one will kick off on September 26. If you are over 14- years-old and looking to play competitive football with other women, email deena@arsenalschoolbahrain.com
