Spotlight on the Juniors – AGM 22nd November 2023
Over the last 12 months, we have seen significant growth in our Junior Membership, especially in the younger age group of 8 to 11. This time last year there were 67 junior members and we anticipated that by the end of the year we would be close to 80. In fact, by July this year, we had 111 Junior (8 to 14) and Young Athletes (14 to 18) which is a huge achievement for the club. Obviously when renewing junior membership for 2023/24 there is inevitably a natural fallout as children move schools/area or other sports/activities become a first priority. That being said, we currently have 92 active members and with new athletes on taster sessions each week, we expect the junior membership to reach 125 plus next year.
The Track & Field Season for Juniors started back at the Rugby Club at the end of March with training on a Monday evening using the outdoor 100m grass running track and a throwing area together with our Saturday morning training sessions at Corby AC. This proved hugely successful in preparing our junior members for competition. We started with Quadkids (across 3 fixtures) which promotes competition in athletic clubs throughout England. Targeting under 9 and 11 age groups it is a perfect stepping stone encompassing all the key aspects of athletics: endurance, speed, agility, and strength. Our younger athletes who competed and represented the club in all age groups did us proud with excellent individual and team performances. For some of our junior members, it was their first time in a T&F competition who then went on to be selected to represent the club in the Heart of England League. This year we competed in a higher division with more clubs represented from across the Midlands. In a highly competitive field, our athletes delivered an excellent all round team performance with individual PB’s recorded and top 3 finishing positions. The U11’s Boys and Girls did exceptionally well across all three fixtures.
Our finale to the T&F season was to host 2 Junior Athletic Summer Camps at the Rugby Club in August – the last time this was done was back in 2009. Open to athletes of all abilities, aged 8 to 14, the aim was to provide 3 days of quality coached athletics in sprints, jumps, throws, middle distance, team relays, games and competition. At the end of each camp, we organised a ‘Mini Olympics’ with an awards presentation of medals and certificates to all participating athletes. It was very well supported with both Junior and Senior Coaches together with two of our ‘young athletes’ from the Tuesday Junior Training Group – a great learning and development opportunity for them both. Both events made a positive contribution in terms of profit for the club. We are planning to host more junior athletic camps next year with the first one being at Easter.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) is a personal development programme for young people which we have the opportunity to promote and actively engage with as a club. This year we have supported 5 of our young athletes from the Tuesday Junior Training group to successfully complete either their volunteering or physical skill at the Bronze Level Award. A special thank you to John Thompson and Nick Turner Henke for helping our young athletes to achieve their goals, acquire new skills and become more confident as individuals. Overall, the
Tuesday Junior Training Group have continued to grow and develop into a very solid team of young athletes with a strong team spirit and work ethic.
Our long- term partnership with co-hosting the Harborough District Primary Schools XC Events kicked off with the first qualifying event in October. There were an incredible 526 young runners and a team of 20 volunteers, nearly all from the club, who worked tirelessly to set up the course/marshal and then take the course down. It was one of the best turn outs from the schools with some fabulous results from our juniors running on behalf of their school. The next event will be in February 2024.
At the beginning of October, we relocated our Junior Teams to RSA on a Monday evening for the start of the Autunm/Winter season of indoor athletics training. Our maximum capacity across the 2 sports halls is 50 athletes which we are reaching every week with a waiting list. We are now looking to extend the facilities to accommodate and support the growth in our Junior Membership going forward.
And that in itself presents a big challenge going into next year which will be to grow & strengthen our coaching team – we will not be able to sustain our growth unless we have more qualified coaches at the right level to continue the brilliant work that is already in place. Currently we have a team of 7 dedicated coaches – John Thompson, Jacquie Hanmer, Jill Roginski, Nick Turner-Henke, Catherine Poynton and most recently Maddy Stevens who has qualified as our youngest Coach Assistant. We need at least 3 more coaches on the team if we are to continue to nurture and develop young talent and future potential as well as promote our sport of athletics.
Next year is a very special year for the club with the 40th Anniversary, we are excited for our Juniors Teams to be part of the celebrations.
Mel Brocklebank
Junior Coordinator
