Welcome to the Junior Section 2011/2012

The junior hockey season is about to start and I would like to introduce myself as the new Youth Coordinator of the hockey club. I have been involved in the junior section for a number of years and have also been a member of the club since I was a junior myself. I am really looking forward to running the junior section this year.

Junior training is held at Culm Valley Sports Centre in Cullompton on Tuesday evenings. We have now combined the junior section and all under 16s will now train between 6 -7. This will hopefully make it easier for many parents with children in different age groups. The intention then is that any of the older juniors that are ready to start moving up to senior training can stay on and train with the ladies 2nd and 3rds when we/they feel they are ready. The transition from each age group should also be made easier.

Annual membership is just £5 for the juniors with training just £1.50 per week.

All of the lead coaches are qualified to minimum of Level One. We also have a Level 2 coach and a number of level 2 Candidates. The club has adopted the England Hockey Code of Conduct for players, Coaches and spectators, and can be viewed on our club website. We have several coaches who have attended Safeguarding Young Children Courses as we endeavor to provide a truly safe environment for the youngsters. We are looking to increase the number of Juniors this year and would love to encourage new players to have a go.

The Grassroots Community Funding awarded the Junior section with a £2000 grant over 2 years is now in its second year and is being used to further improve our coaching staff and to enable us to offer the Young Leaders award to 20 Young players during the season.

NEWS
Over the summer we held a free hockey morning. Its aim was to encourage new players to come and have a go and also act as a refresher for some of our original players. The weather held out and we had a very successful morning. Id like to thank the coaches that took time out of their summer to come along and coach.

The u18s also played a touring side from Brighton over the summer. After a little confusion we managed two games over a weekend against Brighton college combining players with Tiverton White Eagles. They did very well considering they had never played together before, Winning 4 -1 on the Friday game and losing 5 -1 against their senior team on the Monday. So well done to all those that played!


Ginny Cottrell
Youth Coordinator