Canberra's Kelly Stirton wants the ParaMatildas to become Australia's highest ranking team, and she believes they can do it.
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The ParaMatildas - for female soccer players with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury or symptoms acquired from a stroke - was launched on Monday, becoming the first official women's CP national team in the Asia-Pacific region and only the second in the world.
And the capital's very own, Stirton, who is the head coach of Canberra United's powerchair team, the All Abilities Academy and the United Academy reserve grade, will be at the helm.
She discovered her passion for disability coaching through CIT's sports development, before years later the idea for a national side came to fruition.
"I've got family members who are disabled and want to play sports. So knowing that there hadn't been a pathway, and seeing athletes who don't have a pathway was like, 'Well, you know what, there needs to be something out there; and there's got to be coaches out there that that are passionate'," she said.
"It still hasn't hit me. Even though it's been in the pipeline for about three years, and COVID delayed the start and the announcement of the team, I really only found out about the head coach last week. So that was a bit of a shock to me, which was a nice shock."
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The ParaMatildas become one of the four national senior teams, alongside the ParaRoos, Socceroos and Matildas.
And already Stirton knows the calibre of her side ahead of their first camp next month, followed by the IFCPF World Cup in Spain in May, with hopes of the sport being reintroduced to the Paralympics in future.
"Don't be surprised if we finish one of the highest ranked teams in Australian football, that's what our aim is. So we want to be the best team in Australian football and these girls are ready to show the world what they've got and the skills they have," she said.
"You want to compete at the highest level and you want to compete against the best in the world. And you want to come out as the best team in the world. We all have the same goal, we want to win the World Cup. It may be not this year, maybe not the next time but in future years ... we want to bring that World Cup back to Australia."
In order to help get the side to the World Cup in Spain, $1 from every ticket sold for the Matildas two-game series against New Zealand - including the one in Canberra on April 12 - will be donated to help the side's campaign.
And although securing their spot as one of the top teams on their agenda, the side's creation means more than just their results.
Stirton said it also offered a social aspect, as well as a safe space, but more work was needed in developing coaching courses to get more people involved in the area.
"It just creates pathways. These athletes now have that pathway so they could do all abilities training and know that there is an option now to represent their country in their chosen sport," she said.
"The inclusion space has opened up and people are more aware of that. So the stigma has been lost, which is fantastic. That's what we want, right? We want the stigma to go and everyone to be as the hashtag says on equal play. So having that equal playing field, and these athletes get that equal playing field, that's what they've always wanted.
"The International Cerebral Palsy Federation are looking at developing [coaching] courses for like minded coaches or even athletes who are looking to get into that side of sport. I know other federation's across the world probably have developed something, but in Australia there's nothing yet and I think there's definitely a need for it."