SOCCER - Young women adding more beauty to 'beautiful game'

Dee Tunstall grew up with football still stuck firmly in the male domain but she has watched first-hand that dominance change.
The gender lines have blurred within the "beautiful game", seeing it become a favourite among young women throughout New Zealand.
Football fans are expecting another memorable year for the women's game in the North, after the great strides made by the New Zealand women's team qualifying for the Olympics in China, and closer to home, the huge popularity of the Under-17 women's World Cup.
Tunstall has watched the sport develop with pleasure, knowing that in Whangarei, the game's development has mirrored its progress nationally. The region has a strong senior women's competition and the de facto representative team, North Force, are already set to have their biggest year yet with the team stepping up to play in the country's most competitive league.
Tunstall will play as a defender for the team but she is also their assistant coach under North Force head coach Dean Wheatley, who also oversees the progress of the two top men's teams.
Last year was also memorable for Tunstall because she passed her national coaching licence in September, making her the most highly qualified female coach in the United Soccer One (US1) district that encompasses North Harbour, parts of West Auckland and Northland.
It is quite an achievement from someone who didn't start playing until she was at high school.
"There was no girls team at Kamo High School when I was there so I used to play with a boys team but me and another girl had had enough of that and started our own team in the early nineties," she said. Even back then she was involved in the coaching of the team and she went on to play for FC Whangarei, Tikipunga and Kamo as well as a stint playing for Bay Cosmos - again back in the men's competition.
Since then Tunstall has had a family and again developed an interest in coaching after her youngest son, Jayden, started playing.
"I carried on coaching after that ... I really enjoyed finding out more about the game and helping people out and I finally found an advantage to having such a big mouth," she laughs.
As one of the few players in NF over the age of 20, Tunstall knows her experience will help the young players adapt to the level of the Bluebird Northern Premier League, particularly at the beginning of the season.
"This will be a huge step up for them to get the knowledge they need and it's a matter of us (the coaching staff) putting the pressure on them to learn - the quicker the better for the team's sake," she said. "It's going to be a huge commitment every single week to get up to that level but we're not too far away. We did play one cup game last year against (BNP team) Waitakere. We only lost 1-0 so the girls have already shown they can step up and play at that level," she said.
Tunstall believes there might be a couple of early, big defeats but is confident that won't last.
"I'm expecting them to take learning how to lose in their stride and figure out that they've got to work harder in training. They're just not used to losing because they've had so many wins over the last few years...at least the van trips home might be a little bit quieter," she said.
Twenty-four players are currently turning up for training, giving the coaches a huge squad to pick from.
Their first pre-season game is this Saturday.
Picture Caption: SET FOR SEASON: From left, Morgan Tunstall, Caitlin Phillips and Mitchell Phillips were all signed up to play football for Kamo Swifts Soccer Club this year at a club muster yesterday. They were signed up by Dee Tunstall, right, who is also a player/coach for the North Force women's team.