Special visitor from Brighton and Hove Albion opens new 3G pitch at Worthing school

Davison CE High School for Girls held a grand opening on Monday afternoon (October 7).

The guest of honour who cut ribbon was Dani Bowman, the women’s under 19's head coach at Brighton and Hove Albion.

Bowman said: “I think it’s fantastic. It gives the girls the chance to train consistently, without having flooded pitches or no light.

"The facilities themselves are incredible. It’s a fantastic 3G pitch, which will hopefully inspire them to continue training.

“The foundation can come down regularly and they can get weekly training sessions. Hopefully that helps us at Brighton because hopefully they can get on our pathway and hopefully one day play for our first team or be part of our academy system.”

Kirsty Chamberland, community and marketing manager, said the school staff have been ‘working tirelessly’ for the last four years to ‘self-finance this 3G all-weather pitch’ on the school field.

She added: “We are thrilled to have finally achieved our dream.

"This pitch will not only enable our girls to enhance their performance and skills in football and other sports, it will also be a much-needed facility which can be used by the whole community.

We believe its arrival will be a huge step forward in supporting and promoting sports for girls and women.”

After the official opening and welcome speeches, a staff vs students match was held at the school on Monday afternoon.

Headteacher Chris Keating told Sussex World: “We are delighted with this facility and we so proud to have it at our school.

"Football is a massively growing sport in the school and within society – with our Lionesses current European champions and were finalists in the last World Cup.

“It all starts at grassroots level and we are delighted here at Davison to have a facility which will enable all our students and even young girls at primary school level to look forward to using the facility in the future.

“Our students are really excited. It’s taken a lot of support from a lot of different people to make it happen.

"If you a vision, and stick with it, you can make great things happen.”