16 year-old Jess Lumber is a midfielder for Bristol Rovers Women’s FC Development side and has recently broken through into the first team. Jess comes from a family of Gasheads and is a season ticket holder at The Mem herself. We think you can call that living the dream!
Jess recently had her “blog” published on the Women’s Football Supporters website – this is what she had to say:
My name is Jess Lumber and I am currently playing in my first senior year of football with Bristol Rovers in their development team as a centre midfielder.
When I was 5 years old I expressed to my Dad an interest in playing football and he contacted my local club Cadbury Heath YFC who had a mini kickers Saturday morning session for young kids. I was one of two girls there and I loved it. I would always be there come rain or shine. I played in the boys teams up to U12s as a left centre defender as I was the only kid that would head it and kick with my left foot. Cadbury Heath reformed as Emersons Green JFC and formed a girls team and I gave up playing with boys then and moved to centre midfield. I played for them until I was 15 and then moved to Westbury Park Foxes for my last season of junior football as I wanted a crack at playing for a team that would challenge to win the league. I played there with two of current team-mates, Emily H and Zoe J.
I trained with a number of local teams over the Summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also started a game for Keynsham Towns first team in the League Cup for my senior debut. However, despite the interest, with my Dad and late Grandad being passionate Rovers fans and being a Gas season ticket holder for the past couple of years myself, playing for Rovers was always my number one choice and I was lucky enough not only to be given a chance for the Gas Girls but I am also proud to study and play futsal for the club as part of the Community Trust BTEC course.
Getting to play and study wearing the club kit is an absolute honour and I especially love taking part in the fantastic work the Trust does in the community.
My most memorable game playing with the Gas Girls was our pre season friendly vs Gloucester City who would be in our league that year. We ran out winners 13-1 and getting girl of the match was an unreal feeling. It gave us the confidence we needed before the start of the season and having all the fans cheering us and the first team all there to support us was very special and a dream come true for me personally.
Looking forward, well I try not to look too far ahead as you never know when bad luck or an injury might strike and I just want to keep working hard and trying to improve each day and learning from the more experienced girls and coaches supporting me but I do hope to one day represent the club in a Bristol Derby. Maybe a a shorter term aim would be getting to line up in a midfield with Katie R and Jazzy B which would be funny after many years doing battle against each other in junior football!
However, for now I just want to continue enjoying my football with a group of amazing girls and take every game as it comes.