The men's team have had a well-documented rise through promotion to League Two and now League One, but the women are also taking huge strides forward
When Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney was asked for his highlight of the 2022-23 season, most would have expected him to pick out the moment that saw the men's team clinch the National League title and promotion back to the English Football League after 15 years away. But his actual answer was a glimpse at how the plans he and Ryan Reynolds have for this football club are not limited to the men’s team.
"It was Rosie Hughes scoring that goal at the end of that game," McElhenney said on the podcast, referring to the 2-1 win over Connah’s Quay it secured for the women's team in front of a record-breaking crowd at the Racecourse Ground. "For me, it wasn’t just a celebration of the women, it was a celebration of the town itself and emblematic of what we hoped would happen, how you all show up for each other. We weren’t sure when we opened up ticket sales for the game that it would have as much interest as a men’s game, and it was because the community rallied around. It was not just about the win, it was that moment, 10,000 people showing up for another member of the community. I just found it beautiful."
That occasion was light years away from what Gemma Owen saw around the town when she was growing up as a football-mad young girl. Back then, there weren’t many other girls playing the sport at all, leaving her to do what most did by kicking a ball around with the boys on the street, and there certainly weren’t female role models that she could see.
Fast-forward to today and, as the club’s head of women’s football, she is playing a major role in Wrexham’s ambitious project which is changing all of that. “I’m in a position now where we can show young girls of the age that I was at that time, 'Well, actually, look what's out there for you now. Look at the opportunities that are there for you',” she tells GOAL. “It's been a fantastic 12 years so far and the last two or three have been crazy, but very enjoyable. I can't wait to see what comes next.”
Gemma Thomas/Wrexham AFCBuilding on a strong foundation
Things have certainly changed for Owen since Reynolds and McElhenney’s investment. After starting off as a volunteer coach over a decade ago, she has worked a number of roles in the organisation and is proud to say that the women’s department had been progressing nicely even before the Hollywood intervention, with her helping the club build “a foundation of promoting women in sport” through visits to schools and summer camps before starting the women’s and girls’ sections. There are players in the first team today that were in that first Under-12s team, even.
Reynolds and McElhenney’s support has helped take this to another level, though. “The first conversation I had was with Humphrey [Ker, executive director],” Owen remembers. “It was great to sit down and have a conversation with him initially about the investment that they wanted to put in and the support and backing that they wanted to give us – and by backing, I don't just mean financial. I mean in terms of exposure and putting that spotlight on us. That was evident from the beginning.
“Credit where credit's due, they've more than done that and they continue to do that. They've been very, very supportive of what we're doing. They are putting that spotlight on us, whether that's through the documentary, whether that's social media posts, there's lots of that and they really want to involve themselves. They don't stand off. They let us get on with our jobs, don't get me wrong, but in terms of wanting to know the players, wanting to know them as people, wanting to know us as staff, we can't ask for much more from them, we really can't. They are fantastic, both of them.”
AdvertisementGemma Thomas/Wrexham AFCBig steps forward
It's an attitude that has resonated across the club, as shown by the numbers of fans that have come out to support the women’s team – most notably in that game at the Racecourse that McElhenney referenced. It’s also helped the side to enjoy real success, with them winning promotion to the top-flight in Wales last summer, at the same time the men made the jump up to League Two.
“Resources have been quite a big thing and I'm sure that will continue to increase and improve as we move along, but being able to have more specialised staff as well,” Owen explains. “We've brought in strength and conditioning staff and we've brought in performance analysis staff, we've got goalkeeper-specific coaching. That's been a big change for us and a big addition, addressing those areas with people who are specialists has been fantastic. I think that's genuinely allowed us to kick on from where we were last year, even.
“Obviously, going semi-professional has added a big push really and a big drive for us,” she adds, with Wrexham the first of three clubs to do so ahead of the 2023-24 season, along with long-time Welsh giants Cardiff City and Swansea City. “That's in the sense of paying the players, which I think is important, and the increased level of contact time that we have with them. It's still not full-time, it's still not maybe where we aspire to be in terms of that, but it's very different from where we were even just a year or two years ago. I'd say that's allowed us to really push on and kick on.”
Getty'Very, very normal people'
Naturally, dealing with Hollywood actors while overseeing a women’s team that has long possessed an amateur status is a little surreal for Owen. “It’s a bit weird, I’ve got to say,” she laughs. “I've had some conversations with them and they're brilliant. They're absolutely brilliant.
"They've really immersed themselves in the football club and that's across the whole football club, not just the men's team. They've been really supportive of what we're doing and they really do want to propel us. That could be financial, it could be exposure, publicity-wise, they're very good at that. They're very good at putting the spotlight on us. But they do it because they believe in what we're doing. They want to make us successful in whatever part that they can play, just as much as they do with the men's team.
“They're both fantastic people, great to talk to you. they're very normal. It's quite a strange thing to say, I guess, because of the stature that they have and the things that they're involved in, but when you talk to them, they're just very, very normal people who are very excited to actually be here, which is brilliant. I can't fault them.”
Gemma Thomas/Wrexham AFCClosing the gap
Reynolds and McElhenney’s desire to do more for the women’s team is evident in series three of 'Welcome to Wrexham', which landed on and in May, and follows the fortunes of the side on their return to Wales’ top-flight. In that first campaign back at the highest level, the Red Dragons showed that they are “not a million miles off” the likes of Cardiff and Swansea, finishing third behind only those two at the end of the year.
There is still a gap to bridge, as evidenced by the eight points between themselves and the Swans and the 17 adrift they were of title-winning Cardiff, but Owen believes they are already “very close” after just one season at this level. “It's important for us to, firstly, go in there and compete with those teams and, secondly, overcome them, which is not an easy feat by any stretch,” she says. “That's certainly where we want to be.”