Newcastle Knights NRLW superstars Yasmin Meakes and Olivia Higgins are the women behind the Future Fierce Academy. The Academy delivers rugby league clinics encouraging young girls to come and learn some new skills or refine their game.
Yasmin and Olivia are both teachers and wanted to create something that involved both teaching and their love of rugby league.
“We also wanted to give back and make sure the young girls got exposure to rugby league, experiences and an aspiration to play in the NRLW one day,” Yasmin explained.
“Future Fierce didn’t start out targeting females but with Olivia and I heading it up that’s what our target audience turned into! There are more young girls playing rugby league than ever before and the female participation at registered clubs is experiencing record growth.”
Yasmin said Future Fierce is all about building confidence through rugby league in a safe and encouraging environment. The programming is for all abilities and open to anyone who wants to either get better at rugby league or just be part of the Future Fierce community.
Thiess is Future Fierce’s biggest supporter and Kerrie Howells, Thiess Senior Advisor Social Performance, said they believe real impact starts at a grassroots level like Future Fierce.
“Our partnership with Future Fierce Academy is about giving young girls access to quality coaching, strong role models and the confidence to believe they belong at any level they choose.
“This partnership goes far beyond logos on jerseys. It’s about investing in people, opportunity and the future of women’s sport, beginning right here at a community level.
“Having Yasmin and Olivia working directly with these young players is incredibly powerful. When young girls can train with players they watch on the NRLW stage, it changes what they believe is possible,” Kerrie explained.
Yasmin wanted to ensure young girls could see there is a genuine pathway to professional rugby league in regional and rural areas too.
“You can’t be what you can’t see. When I was growing up I couldn’t see myself as a rugby league player because it didn’t exist; there was no pathway. The more we can encourage young girls to pick up the sport and try it; there will be more girls wanting to play and more teams filled in grassroots rugby league.
“We are so lucky to have Thiess’ backing. They genuinely want us to go out into the community and give us the funding to be able to do that. We ran a clinic with the Singleton Greyhounds free of charge thanks to that funding.
“You feel their passion. The backing from Thiess allows Olivia and I more freedom to go out and support the clubs that are a bit smaller and might need that presence of the NRLW. We absolutely love our partnership and it continually keeps growing.”
Yasmin said the Future Fierce community has become more incredible than they could’ve imagined.
“We have some athletes who come every single session, we’ve seen them grow and develop their skills, young girls have become best friends through the clinics and they’re connecting with each other even though they might play for different local teams.
“We have even seen girls wearing their Future Fierce shirts at our Knights games. It makes us feel really proud of what we’ve created and its special for these girls to be able to have somewhere they feel like they belong,” Yasmin smiled.
| The Future Fierce Academy run their clinics in the school holidays. You can find all the info via their Instagram page: @futurefierce_ Yasmin and Olivia also love getting out to local clubs so get in touch with them if you’d like Future Fierce to come to you! |
