World Cup bronze a buzz for Ayla

Tauranga’s Under 17 World Cup bronze medal winner Ayla Pratt hangs with juniors at Links Ave

From mini kicks at Otumoetai Football Club, through Tauranga City's high-achieving women's team, to a World Cup bronze medal winner – that's the tale of Ayla Pratt's football career so far, and it's one she never expected to be able to tell.

Back at her old stomping ground at Tauranga City's Links Avenue ground, where she's kicking a ball around with some of the club's juniors and passing on her knowledge, Ayla is still buzzing about the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay.

Her team became the country's first - at any level - to make it out of the group stages and went on to beat Canada 2-1 in the third-place playoff.

Apart from her on-field appearances, which included a start in the group game against Ghana, Ayla says the team's togetherness was the highlight of her time in South America.

'It was unreal,” she says. 'The girls bonded so fast and it was so much easier having a close-knit team. I think that was one of the main reasons that made it so good.”

With WaiBop stable-mates Grace Wisnewski and Kelli Brown playing so well up front and scoring goals, it was hard for the attack-minded Ayla to get game time, but it was special when she did.

'It was a whole new feeling running on. Especially starting and singing the national anthem from the pitch.

'I never thought I was going to do that. Looking up and seeing all our supporters, and some of my family - it was pretty emotional.”

Not that she begrudged Grace and Kelli their success.

'It was so good for them. We talked back in the hotel about how little old WaiBop was doing in the team, so I was stoked when both of them scored.”

It's all come about for Ayla after she almost gave up the game. After 10 years of football without seriously trying any other sport, she admits she got sick of it.

'So I thought I just needed a break, to see if that helped,” she says.

After leaving school half way through year 12 at St Peter's, Cambridge, she ditched the game completely. But joining Tauranga City's Bay SportsMed Women's team, and going back to simply having fun playing, helped to turn her around.

'I just needed to find my love for it again, I guess.”

An out-of-the-blue opportunity to take a scholarship and finish year 13 at Auckland's St Kentigern's College put her on a track to the Junior Football Ferns and, potentially, life at football's elite level.

'I was over the moon, so I knew I had to take it, and I had the best year of my life up there,” says Ayla.

Where life - and football - takes her from here is still up in the air, but staying and playing in Tauranga is one of her options, and it is one Tauranga City chairperson Brendon McHugh would love her to take.

'It's great to see where women's football is going,” he says, 'and for us at the club it's great to have some connection to it.

'It's exciting for everyone at the club to see one of our own doing so well.”

He says the club is proud of the strong female football programme it has, and of their women's team that has dominated at regional WaiBop Federation level.

Attracting Ayla back to the club would be massive for them in terms of moving to the next level, he says.

'If we could get her back playing for us, it would be great.

'Some of the girls that came down are not yet part of the programmes we're running, but they've come down because she's a hero to them, so it's great to see.”

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