The Garfield Sobers Gymnasium played host to the second day of the National Sports Council Girls’ Primary School Futsal Championship on Wednesday, drawing robust enthusiasm and participation from eight competing primary school teams across the region.
As event coordinator Soraya Toppin-Herbert, a former senior national women’s football player and ex-Director of Women’s Football for the Bahamas Football Association, shared, early assessments of the tournament paint an overwhelmingly positive picture of community and institutional buy-in. “So far it’s been going really good. The girls have been enjoying the game, there’s been a lot of excitement and most of the schools have had a full squad,” Toppin-Herbert told reporters.
The championship did not emerge out of nowhere: it grew organically from a seven-a-side youth football rally hosted at the close of the first school term last year, when organizers first noticed the unmet demand for girls’ competitive futsal opportunities. That early grassroots interest aligned with a core strategic goal of the National Sports Council (NSC): expanding female access to organized sports and keeping young girls engaged in athletic activity year-round, rather than limiting participation to one-off annual events.
Toppin-Herbert noted that for years, boys have had a steady, high-profile outlet for competitive football through the NSC/BICO Football Competition, commonly known as BICO. While a small number of female players have joined that tournament, the vast majority of girl athletes have been locked out of consistent organized play, a gap this new championship is designed to fill. Already, the response has been strong enough that organizers have received multiple requests to expand roster sizes to accommodate more girls who want to compete.
Despite the widespread enthusiasm, Toppin-Herbert acknowledged that the tournament has revealed a wide gap in experience and performance across teams, a reality that signals room for growth in the nascent program. Some girls already play regularly in mixed leagues alongside boys, bringing tighter ball control and more physical toughness to the court. For many other participants, this marks the first organized competitive football event they have ever joined, leading to a broad range of skill levels across matches.
Even with that disparity, Toppin-Herbert framed the mixed skill levels as a win for organizers. The high level of interest from participants and schools alike proves that there is a solid foundation to build on as the NSC works to grow girls’ futsal in the years ahead. The tournament remains on track to complete its schedule in the coming days, with organizers already planning adjustments to meet the unanticipated demand for participation.