Minis and Youths News
With the 2018/19 season about to start the Minis and Youths at all age levels are beginning to start pre-season training and all squads should be up and running by the beginning of September. For many years the Club has done its best to field a squad at every single age level from U7 up to U18. That’s a lot of work and involves a huge amount of time and effort on the part of a large number of Volunteers, much of which is unseen. The most visible example of Volunteers are obviously the coaches and administrators but others would include:
- Assistant coaches who perhaps don’t have a lot of playing or coaching experience but are happy to help out because a son or daughter is training and playing.
- People with first aid training.
- People who assist in the kitchen on match days feeding players after the game.
- At this time of the year in particular we are reaching out to anyone who would be willing to assist at Minis or Youths level. We are reaching out particularly to: Current and/or former players to help with coaching, whether you have coaching experience or not.
- Parents. Even if you don’t have any playing or coaching experience but would be happy to learn “on the job” by working with current coaches and attending coaching courses which the Club’s own senior coaches will run on a periodic basis throughout the season we would be delighted to have you on board.
- People who have first aid experience (or would be willing to attend first aid courses funded by the Club) and who would be willing to attend games as a team’s “medic”. It would take a huge amount of pressure off the coaches themselves if somone with training or expertise was on hand to tend to any injuries that might arise.
- Parents who would be willing to help out in the Youths Centre after matches preparing the dining room and feeding the players.
- Minders. A couple of times each year we take the various squads to the RDS or the Aviva for Leinster or Ireland games. This involves a fair bit of minding on the bus and getting kids to and from the stadium safely.
Insofar as new or assistant coaches are concerned you wouldn’t be asked to take on a team or squad on your own. Each squad already has an experienced coach or coaches but additional eyes/ears/voices are always welcome, particularly at Minis level where the attention span on the part of the kids is very short and where there is need for a smaller coach/player ratio. For current or ex-players, even if you’re not in a position to commit full time (which would amount to one evening training per week and a game most weekends) if you would be willing to be part of a roster to be called upon when necessary that would be great.
We have found over the years that many people didn’t become involved, or hesitated to become involved, because, either:
(a). They weren’t invited, or,
(b). They had little or no experience of rugby, or had no prior involvement with the Club, and didn’t feel comfortable enough to “volunteer”.
If that’s the case then:
(a). Consider yourself as having been invited now!!
(b). Don’t let a lack of experience of rugby or involvement in the Club be a barrier.
Elsewhere on the website you will see contact details for: Our Youths’ Chair, Our Youths’ Co-ordinator & Our Minis’ Co-ordinator The various coaches at the various age levels.
Please do telephone the appropriate person on the contacts list. Alternatively, you can simply turn up at a training session or on our registration day, see what we are about and, if you like what you see, introduce yourself and please do offer to help in whatever role you feel comfortable.
As is the case with other Sports organisations, anyone involved with children needs to be Garda Vetted (we will organise this) and subscribe to the IRFU Child Welfare Policy.
