Yeah the Girls! TMBC's Junior Girls Program

Toowoomba is home to some of the best raw-janky trails of South East Queensland. With names like Jared Graves putting a spotlight on the Jubilee trail network, the town has hosted both downhill and cross country national championships and Oceania champions events. The Toowoomba range has spawned immense mountain biking talent over the years, most recently with shredders Oliver Colthup and Elle de Nooyer.

Paul and Fiona de Nooyer have been club members for years, and witnessed the difficulties of building a community of girls and women role models first hand as their daughter Elle struggled to find community during her journey in the sport. Elle progressed through sub-junior U17 to junior U19 and now elite ranks in downhill and enduro as one of the only women in the region racing at a national level.

Paul said when Elle was progressing in the sport, ‘there were only two other girls up here in Toowoomba, apart from that there was no-one. It can be hard for these young girls to forge connections’.

So when the opportunity arose to snag a government grant focussed on getting more women and girls into sport, they jumped straight in and the Toowoomba Mountain Bike Club’s junior girls program was born. ‘The focus is getting these girls into it, confident and connected’ says Paul.

Targeting girls aged 8–14, Paul and Fiona had mild ambitions, hoping for at least 4 girls signing up. Instead they ended up with 14 girls in the program’s first term, with next term already being almost at capacity, proving that there is a hot demand for girls mountain bike coaching.

Next term’s expansion is dependant on coaches, as Paul explains, ‘it’s been hard to get coaches and coaching courses in Queensland. Getting people on board is the hard part, people are busy and don’t want to give up their time on the weekend, so a big part of the program was getting people qualified without out of pocket expense for coaches.’

Prioritising strong leaders has been a focus of the program ‘Elle (de Nooyer) did manual coaching last session with the girls’ and they have focussed on bringing in female coaches where possible, as Paul explains, ‘they need strong role models to look unto that are women, that aren’t their dad or another male.’

‘While we want a general kids program, we started wth the girls first,’ Paul explains, ‘we are only going to open it up to boys when we have enough coaches, we aren’t adding boys at the expense of the existing girls program. We are pretty protective and we are sticking to our guns, no girl should miss out because the boys are coming in.’

The girls are hooked; ’The younger ones are so chatty, they love the trash talk and are getting along so well. The older ones are a bit in the “cool” age…they just want to ride better in Jubilee, some of the tracks are pretty rocky and hard’ says Paul.

And for the future? They want to expand the visibility and presence of all women on the trails, ‘Ideally we want their mums to get together and ride and get involved’.

“If they feel good by looking good they’re already going to be positive”