Our Director:

Ashlee

Ashlee has grown up with soccer in her family from a very young age. She started playing at Knox City Soccer Club because she was bored sitting on the sidelines watching her brother play and decided to join the team. She started playing in the first girls team at Knox in U12, before moving to Sandringham Women’s Premier League at the age of 15. She played open Women’s Soccer for multiple years, and also represented her State from U12-U18. In 2008, she was offered a full scholarship to Philadelphia University to experience soccer at a whole new level. In 2009, very suddenly, due to health and injuries she unfortunately had to end her playing career and her focus turned to coaching and teaching kids. Ashlee went on to complete her Bachelor of Primary Education/Bachelor of Science in 2013 at Monash University. 

Ashlee is the President at South Yarra Soccer Club and coordinates 20+ Junior Teams, 10 Senior Teams and staff. The Junior Development Program is highly regarded as one of the best in Victoria, and with the Club celebrating 90 years in 2018, it is a very exciting time to be a part of such a successful Community Club. Ashlee enjoys coaching and running programs for all ages and her proudest achievement to date is her current U18 Girls Team. The girls have been a team at SYSC for 5 years now and together they have grown into an extremely successful team. Ashlee says “It is very rare to retain the same players in the same team for multiple years. But, when you provide a positive environment, a focus on friendships and team work, as well as a fun and structured training program, the opportunities are endless. My girls went on to win the league over the last two years and in 2017 were competing in the highest league for their age group. We were super competitive and finished top 4. The best part about it is my girls have developed the strongest friendships, that I am certain will last a lifetime.

Ashlee attended the 2017 Women in Soccer Forum at AAMI park, which brought together passionate people from all over Australia; with the focus on increasing participation, retaining female players and encouraging women to be actively involved in Women’s Soccer in Australia. Something’s Ashlee had to say about the forum:

“The 2017 Women’s in Soccer Forum was a fabulous collaboration of passionate women and men, all with the same goal of getting girls of all ages involved in soccer in Australia. It is a very exciting time for everyone involved in female soccer in Australia; with the Matilda’s being so successful in recent years and the participation level at a Community Club Level, NPL level, Region and State Team level all on the rise. I love being able to take my playing  and coaching experiences and guide the younger generation of kids I work with everyday. Sport is so important for development, social skills, leadership, communication, body image, mental health and I think with positive role models surrounding our kids we can provide them the best opportunities in life.”

In 2018, Ashlee was named a Community Champions Bid Ambassador for the Women’s World Cup bid in 2023. She will be seeking your support in joining the bid and promoting women’s soccer on the World Stage. The Women’s World Cup bid will be submitted in early 2020 and we hope to have this amazing event on show in 2023! Ashlee also participated in the Football Victoria Women in Football Leadership Program. This was a great opportunity to connect and network with likeminded women working in the same industry. The Program focused on communication techniques and activities lead by Carol Fox & Co, as well as a club project to be explored in the coming year. 

2019 was a huge year for women in football (soccer), especially for our Matilda’s who participated in the Women’s World Cup in France. There were plenty of opportunities for women to network out in clubland during this time, with several events hosted including a World Cup Event at Port Melbourne Soccer Club. Ashlee saw her SYSC Women’s SL1 team promoted to the VPLW, as well as an influx in female members joining the SYSC community. The annual Kick4Life Women’s Summer Tournament involved 120 women from all over Melbourne participating at Fawkner Park. This was an increase of 40 players compared to our 2018 tournament. The best part was seeing so many new female players trying out our sport in 2019, which hopefully means an influx of community club players in 2020. 

Ashlee is super excited for all the upcoming projects KICK4LIFE has in 2020, including their STRONGER Sports Leadership Program! #womeninfootball 

Operations Manager:

Sep Delakidis

My name is Sep Delakidis and I am the Operations Manager for Kick4Life. I am a mum of 2 very energetic boys.

I have always loved my sport, especially my soccer. I started playing soccer first at university and continued to play up until 2008. I have Played in Various team levels from State 5 to State 1. My favourite position was defence. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago I tore my ACL and that meant that my ability to continue to play was taken away. After my Rehab I could not stay away and tried to play again but unfortunately was unable to do so.  This was very difficult for me as I so badly wanted to be involved in the sport.

I decided to volunteer my time at my son’s soccer clubs and started to become passionately involved with teaching kids especially girls. I have always said “that no matter the level of your skills, you will always be part of a team”.

I became involved with K4L when I met Ashlee Good the Founder / CEO. I saw her determination and recognised how we both shared the same passion for seeing children, especially girls, of young ages be involved with sport. We spoke about how I could use my experience and knowledge to empower and educate children about their strengths on & off the pitch, and it was here that I was offered this amazing opportunity.

K4L has so many wonderful aspects to it. It is not just a sports-based program, but a fun and safe program that teaches children of all ages resilience and empowers them to follow their dreams, whatever it may be. It teaches them to be proud of who they are and never doubt their abilities.

At K4L together, we hope to continue working with children from a vast variety of backgrounds. My main focus is reaching out to the regional areas and involving the children who may not be able to afford the ability to join a local club due to financial issues or being from a lower socio-economic area. K4L is a very big part of my life and it is not only a job for me, but it is my dream to see young children achieve their goals. The smiles on their faces is priceless and that is more than enough for me.