Calleigh Hedley Balances Football and Motherhood
Calleigh Hedley is back in Guernsey FC green, but life looks very different now.
The club’s prolific forward has returned to the pitch after giving birth to her son Luca, trying to blend two demanding worlds: leading the line for the Green Lionesses and learning the rhythms of new motherhood.
“I’m not looking forward to spending whole days away from him,” she admits. The honesty lands with the same force as one of her finishes. There is no gloss here, just the reality of early flights, late returns and a baby waiting at home.
Hedley missed half of last season after becoming pregnant, but when she did play, she was ruthless. Eight appearances. Sixteen goals. She still finished as the sixth-highest scorer in the Southern Region Women’s Football League Division One South, despite featuring in only a fraction of the campaign.
Guernsey FC would love that strike rate to roll straight into their second season in the English league pyramid. Early signs say it might.
In last month’s Women’s FA Cup tie – Guernsey’s first-ever match in the competition – Hedley announced her comeback inside two minutes. A sharp finish, a statement. She went on to score both of Guernsey’s goals in a 3-2 home defeat to Chessington & Hook United, a loss on paper but a clear reminder of her edge in front of goal.
“I was shocked,” she said of that early strike. “I wasn’t sure I was even going to get a goal, let alone score in two minutes.
“It definitely helped me feel a bit better coming back into it, and I obviously had my family there watching and Luca was there, so it was really nice.”
That support network is already crucial. Training sessions, gym work, matchdays – all now revolve around childcare plans as much as tactical ones.
“My family are amazing, they’re always helping me with Luca,” she told BBC Radio Guernsey. “If I need to go to the gym or anything, they’re always offering ‘we’ll have him for a bit so you can go do what you need to do’.
“For the away games, for the home games, they say ‘we’ll have him, don’t worry’, so it’s been a massive help.”
Early flights, late returns, and hard choices
The new league season begins on Sunday, when the Green Lionesses host Bognor Regis Town. After that, the schedule bites: three consecutive away fixtures, each one a long day built around flights to and from England.
Those trips are no longer just about preparation, performance and recovery. They are about time away from Luca.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to commit to every single away game,” Hedley admits. The sentence hangs there, heavy with the push and pull of ambition and attachment. “But I will definitely be trying to do some, but it’ll be difficult having a day away from him.”
Guernsey know what she offers when she is available: a penalty-box predator who scores in bursts and changes games quickly. Hedley knows what the game gives her too – identity, joy, that familiar rush of a ball hitting the net.
Now she has something else that matters just as much, if not more.
The season will test how often those two worlds can meet.
