American star Judy Reyes' group partners with Watford Women

Fronted by actress Judy Reyes - who has appeared in popular US show Scrubs -the group has made an undisclosed financial investment in the women’s side of Watford FC.

In return the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier side will support Sound of Gol with developing and integrating members of the Latina community into the women’s game.

The partnership has been created after two Latina women spent a week with the Golden Girls earlier this year, joining both training and coaching sessions, with the aim of taking what they learned back to the United States to get more women from the Latina community playing the game.

Former Watford defender Jay DeMerit, who works with the foundation, joined Judy, her husband and fellow investor George Valencia to launch the partnership at Vicarage Road on Saturday where the team’s first mascot was unveiled. Details about how this will be named will be revealed soon.

The new project will see six Latina women come to England in January for a specially designed women’s only coaching course. This will be documented – Watford Women and Sound of Gol will be producing content together – while the Golden Girls also hope to benefit from the group’s various areas of expertise as Sound of Gol and Ward will be joined on the board by commercial expert Anna Chanduvi and Kieran Theivamanoharan and Alex Stone, formerly of the Football Association and Fifa respectively.

Watford Women head coach Renee Hector, Judy Reyes and the new mascot (Image: Watford FC)

Born out of American soccer camps, Sound of Gol has grown into a movement that aims to teach diversity and cultural acceptance, empower young women and encourage them to follow their dreams.

Judy said: “The inclusion is important to me, the diversity is important and the opportunities that we are creating with a project like this for young Latinas who are just as passionate as any boy or any white girl in the States.

“We’re so grateful for Watford and for their initial support and excited about participating in this. It creates opportunity for both and growth for all of us.”

A group shot at Saturday's launch (Image: Watford FC)

Both sides are keen to stress this partnership is about much more than money and fits in with Watford’s community ethos. It will also enable the Golden Girls to stand on their own two feet a little more, but remain firmly part of Watford FC.

“Don’t get me wrong, finances help any organisation, of course they do, but I think they have to be brought in in the right way and with the right intentions and that’s what this partnership does,” said Watford’s head of women’s football Helen Ward.

“It’s about those lasting impacts, not just here but across the pond as well. If we can get our brand over there and similarly Sound of Gol’s brand over here then it’s going to be mutually beneficial and it’s going to help us hopefully then tackle the idea of under representation on this side of the pond as well.

The partnership could have wide-ranging benefits for all sides (Image: Watford FC)

“Whether that’s the players we get, whether that’s coaches, whether that’s staff in other areas, whether that’s just kids in schools who can look at this and say ‘that person looks like me and they want to do things for people that look like me’ that’s what we want to come out of this.

“We’re looking at inventive ways of bringing in our own revenue, of course that’s part of it, but we’re doing it a little bit differently than just a big commercial sponsor that’s going to chuck in X amount of pounds and we’re going say thank you very much and buy a new striker. That’s not what it’s about.”

George, who is a director and has extensive experience in football, including setting up Italian club’s AS Roma’s digital department, believes that with Watford as a form of headquarters, the partnership can broaden its geographical reach in the future.

He said: “We’re going to work on this women’s only coaching curriculum but it could be great to have other women from Latin America, South America come over and even maybe Africa – just go out and really expand it. That’s the goal.”