Our History

The Grand Bahama Girls’ Developmental Soccer League was officially formed in 2000 to provide an option other than playing on co-ed or predominantly boys’ teams at the YMCA and to provide a youth development feeder system for the Women’s League which had been established by the Grand Bahama Football League (GBFL) in 1994. The Grand Bahama Girls’ Developmental League was designed to be played on Saturday afternoons so as not to conflict with the morning YMCA League, thus giving the girls the option to play in both programmes, if they so desired.

The Grand Bahama Girls’ Developmental Soccer League was the brainchild of Co-Founder Donnie Knowles, a passionate advocate for youth soccer since his return to the Bahamas after a short-lived professional football career in Europe. At the tender age of twenty-one, Donnie was ready to sign on as a professional player for Sheffield United when he had the worst luck imaginable, he broke his leg three days before the signing date. He went back and forth to Europe on the invitation but eventually permanently moved to Grand Bahama in 1983 where he eventually formed his own team mainly made up of youth players and that is when he found his true purpose for coming home – coaching youth, not only in soccer skills but in life skills as well. Donnie worked with the YMCA Youth League, Kiwanis U-19 League, and the Grand Bahama High School League in his earlier years of coaching.

When the Women’s League started in 1994, Donnie decided to dedicate his time and effort to the female program and coached one team initially, then two teams – an A and a B team. One a team of skillful players, and the other a team of youth who were learning the game and would be eventually moved up to the A team when they had developed their skills.

Donnie and his wife Mary saw a need for a developmental league for girls. It was obvious to them that girls’ sports did not get as much emphasis as the boys’ sports. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in the United States certainly did not affect how the media and education system felt about female sports here in The Bahamas. There was still discrimination based on sex in nationally funded educational programs and activities. Soccer at the primary level was still coed up until 2015 with the only requirement that you had to have three girls on the field at one time.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation in the United States, by the age of 14, girls drop out of sports twice as often as boys. Factors such as social stigma, lack of access, costs, and lack of positive role models can all contribute to the reasons why girls drop out of sports in their adolescent years.

The organizers of Grand Bahama Girls Developmental Soccer League wanted to use soccer as a tool for social change by providing the girls the opportunities to overcome barriers they face while growing up in challenging environments (ie. single-parent homes). As an organization, they addressed the factors that hinder female participation in sports by providing them access to a quality soccer program and ensuring that positive role models inspire the young girls, especially former players of the Predators (GBFL team Donnie coached), college players, and high school players. They made a safe environment where their motto is, “A place for every girl to play,” providing a place for everyone in the program regardless of the size, speed, skill, fitness level, or experience.

The league coaches make it their responsibility to reassure the girls that it is socially acceptable to participate in sports and to make them understand that it can give them the skills and confidence to break down barriers and achieve goals throughout their lives. A handout of facts is given out to this day at registration, taken from research from 1500 studies from The Women’s Sports Foundation, stating that participation in physical activity can prevent chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease, decrease rates of teenage pregnancies, nurture better mental health, develop higher self-images and increase confidence levels, improve teamwork and communication skills, increased graduation rates and leadership skills that can lead to achievement opportunities in school and at work.

In 2009, the Grand Bahama Girls Developmental Soccer League outgrew the Grand Bahama Catholic High field and transitioned to the Grand Bahama Rugby Football Club.

SUPPORTING THE YMCA

In 2016, after Hurricane Matthew, many of the coaches and parents were dealing with damage to their homes. In an effort to gradually return to a semblance of normalcy on Grand Bahama, a few coaches still conducted the league on Saturdays. Phones were down and it was difficult to get the message out so the number in the league dropped to around 150 players. Scholarships were awarded to the players who could not afford the thirty-dollar annual registration fee.

This year, the organizers of the GBGDSL organized the grassroots youth program at the YMCA on Saturday mornings in an effort to rejuvenate the Y’s fifty-year-old program and to revamp the dying boys’ soccer program on the island. The registration fees were paid directly to the YMCA.

As a result, the YMCA had an increased enrollment. Some of them were our female players because it was run by the same organizers as the girls’ program in the afternoon, and because of the convenience of having their sons and daughters playing at the same time on Saturday. We are still advocates of separate soccer programs for the sexes and see that the females who play in the all-girls program are more aggressive and confident.

HERE WE GROW AGAIN!

In 2017, our enrollment increased to 206 female players. Our season commenced on Oct. 7 and finished on Feb. 24, 2018. Because of the lack of lighting, organizers were not able to conduct the 15–18-year-old session immediately after the 2–4 session or evenings during the week. The older girls stayed active in soccer during this timeframe by coaching in the YMCA League in the morning, playing friendly games from 12–1:30 p.m. with the male players, and then coaching in the GBGDSL at 2 p.m. The female teenagers started practicing twice a week in the evenings in March when there was more evening light. There were 70 females registered in the Champions League which ran from March 10 – June 30, 2018. The total number of players for the 2017–2018 season was 277 players. Not all of these players paid their registration for the year, as we tried to be accommodating due to the closing of the major hotel Our Lucaya and other strains on the economy in Grand Bahama.

SOCCER SCHOLARSHIPS

We have had numerous players attend university on partial soccer scholarships over the years. In 2021, we have five females and six males attending university on academic and /or athletic scholarships.

Males were officially included in 2018
The Grand Bahama Girls Developmental Soccer League was not allowed to be an affiliated club with the Bahamas Football Association (BFA) because the club catered exclusively to girls and you must have males in order to be affiliated with the BFA. Some of the male high school players were refereed or coached the Girls’ League but were lacking a league to play in other than the school league, so a league was formed for males 13 – 25 years called the Grand Bahama Champions League. It was a resounding success and now has over 100 males in a Whatsapp chat group where they talk “everything soccer.”

In 2018, an NBA-style draft with a packed house of parents and friends took place with an opening ceremony with the Minister of Youth, Sport, and Culture as the guest speaker with other dignitaries in attendance.

SUPPORTING EIGHT MILE ROCK
In 2018, the former principal at Eight Mile Rock and the director of the GBGDSL organized for the school bus driver to bring the girls from Eight Mile Rock to our program on the school bus. The girls do not pay registration and are given free soccer boots, shin guards and socks if they do not possess the necessary equipment to play the game properly. We pay the bus driver thirty dollars a week for his time. This program is still in operation.

GRAND BAHAMA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
(Starts after the Grassroots League and finishes in March)

• Grand Bahama Women’s League consists of four teams and started in 2016.

• Grand Bahama Men’s League consists of four teams and started in 2018.