St Mirren Women’s coach Kate Cooper believes the use of their club captain to launch the Buddies’ new strips will help inspire a new generation of female players.
For the first time in St Mirren’s history, a player from the women’s team was featured as the Saints revealed their new shirt designs for the upcoming season.
Skipper Karen McCabe stood proudly alongside men’s first-team star players Eamonn Brophy, Ethan Erhahon and Jak Alnwick, as well as academy prospect Lewis Gillespie.
Cooper feels the optics of the move are hugely significant as she’s adamant it will help to show young aspiring girls that there’s a clear pathway to the top for them too.
She told Express Sport: “This is the first time the women’s team has been involved in the strip launch and while some people say it’s just a strip, it signifies a lot more than that.
“The club’s motto is ‘one town, one club’ and this shows St Mirren is able to cater to a lot more people in its community.
“Historically at most football clubs the male players would have been used and female models would have been hired in to display the tops on a woman.
“That was a terrible message to send out, that female athletes and players have to look a certain way.
“Why do that when you already have the perfect role models available in your own women’s team, which is what St Mirren have achieved with this latest launch.
“This sends out a much stronger, more positive message to young girls and women in our community.
“It’s a great move by the club and a positive step forward in the continued and increasing coverage of women’s football.
“I think there will undoubtedly be an increase in the number of young girls wanting to participate, because having our captain Karen involved shows that this sport is fully accessible for boys and girls now.”
The positive news keeps on coming for the St Mirren Women’s team, with their league campaign set to finally get back up and running at the start of August after months of lockdown.
Cooper is still on the hunt for additions to her squad ahead of their long-awaited return to competitive action, with the club currently playing as many friendlies as they can to prepare.
She said: “Getting the women’s game back up and running is going to be especially hard given how much it’s been affected by the pandemic.
“Thankfully the league is finally going to be starting back up from the start of August and running to May, which is great news for the players and the staff.
“We’ve lost some players over the course of the lockdown, so we’re still recruiting at the moment. I’d say we need two or three players to complete the squad.”
