INFORMATION FOR JUNIORS

Dear all,

The Junior Section is using the summer break to prepare for next season. As would be expected, we need help to continue to develop the Junior Section for the benefit of the players and for the benefit of the club in general. There are several ways you can help.

1. Coaches

We are looking for several coaches to join us to be able to run a team in each age group (9 teams in total). You can join a coach already in place, you could take on a team without a coach at the moment or you may want to join force with another new comer to take on a team. You could be involved with a younger age group or an older one depending on your preference.  It is worth pointing out that coaching a younger age group offers some advantages:

- Your rugby skills don't have to be top level,

- It will be less time consuming. For example coaching the U8 will take 1 hour on Sunday mornings with very few games,

- You will be able to take the level 1 course and possibly follow this up with the level 2,

- It could be a way to start being involved with coaching and then to decide what you want to do.

On the other hand, coaching an older age group may be more appealing but it will be more challenging and time consuming.

The important thing is that you don’t have to be a (male) ex international player to coach. By the way there is a level 1 course held in Bangor in August.

2. Referees

Traditionally coaches have been refereeing but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are a player, an ex-player or if you are interested in refereeing, you can help the club by doing so. You will have to do the level 1 one day course (which is really not taxing). Again you can tailor your commitment to your availability. For example an U10 or an U11 game is played on half a pitch and lasts 20 to 30 minutes, so you could help the club by refereeing for 1 to 2 hours on Sundays once or twice a month. If then you want a more challenging task you could go to ref older age groups such as U14 and above. There are several level 1 and level 2 refs at the club who will be available for advice, help and support.

3. Help a team

Without being a player, a ref or a coach you can still play an important part by helping any of the teams. We are hoping that each team will have a team manager. The role of the managers will vary with the individuals involved and the needs of the team. It could be helping with the paperwork, communication, keeping the website up to date, helping with match reports and being part of the general organisation of the team.

4. Help the Junior section

All of you will have skills and qualities that would benefit the club. There are many tasks within the junior section where you could use those skills and qualities: helping with registration, communication, coordinating sponsorship or being our treasurer, managing kit and equipment, promoting and advertising teams / club, organising events, raising funds, helping with the website etc...

You can help in different ways. You may want to be responsible for a specific task or you may prefer to help somebody else. You may want to be regularly involved (on a weekly basis for example) or you may prefer to have a one off commitment (to achieve or help to achieve a specific task). You could also volunteer for specific tasks (for example organising the Christmas and end of season presentations) or make yourself available when help is needed.

Conclusion

The overall idea is that everybody can help one way or another. We would want to assemble a team to manage the Junior section and support our players. Obviously this call for help is addressed to ladies as well as gents, players or non players.

If you are interested or want to discuss it, you can contact one of the coaches or a junior section member or me.

In any case, see you all around the club,

Pierre Peyrasse

Chair of the Junior section