Welcome to the new season and what a season it is going to be. We had a wonderful summer (except for the weather of course) of training every Thursday, and from what I heard everyone, parents included, had a great time. We had some new faces which is always a great way to start a season and some old faces (well, mostly the coaches) and I know my youthful face was seen there a few times.
Anyway enough of the past, let’s look forward to the season ahead. We have a lot going on at the Club as a whole. We are all feeling very confident that this season will see the Club grow and benefit from the progress that we made last season and the new initiatives that have been implemented for the new season.
After a few seasons without a Director of Rugby, we have Colin Flemming appointed to this position. This will mean that we have a centrally controlled Coaching Team right from Lawrence and Paul, our 1st Team Coaches through to Richie who is the coach of our Under 7 and 8 Team.
The initiative means that regular coaching clinics will be held for us and help us to progress our effectiveness and in turn pass this on to the players. All of our Mini’s coaches have now attained a Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Rugby which is quite an achievement. So I would like to take this opportunity in congratulating Richard, Ian, Mick, Beaky, Harry, Mark and Richie on their success and commitment.
This season also sees the Mini’s section trying out a RFU Initiative of providing the players with a quantifiable method of charting their progress in some key parts of the game of Rugby. We will be looking at fitness and some of the basic skills required to play the game effectively. This is an internally administered scheme and will be run by our coaching staff. The great thing about the scheme is that there is no pressure on the players to perform as it is an ongoing assessment, and there is no failure as the players are encouraged to progress naturally through the seasons coaching. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to chat to the coaching staff about it.
We will be doing our usual trip to the Harlequins Stoop ground this year and we are in the process of finalising the date for this so we can give you lots of notice. I hope to have a date in place by the middle of October. We are also investigating the possibility of the whole Mini’s Section going on Tour this year. We are investigating 3 options at the moment and will again make a decision on this soon and keep you informed along the way. We would like to keep the costs down and are planning some fund raising events throughout the season. If you have any ideas or suggestions, or could help out with the fundraisers, please contact me so we can start this as early in the season as possible. Fundraising is a vital part in keeping our club running so any help with this would be appreciated.
Over the summer the Club Website has, with sponsorship, been redeveloped and we are launching the new look www.crawleyrfc.co.uk very soon. It is a lot more interactive and allows us to publish a lot more of our forthcoming events, match reports, player profiles and news. This is very reliant on
Sponsors of Crawley RFC Youth Section With so much going on this season, and if everyone feels as positive as I do, then I am sure we are all in for a treat this season. I would like to wish you all the best of luck in your teams campaigns and if there is anything that you would like to discuss with me, please feel free to contact me at any stage.
Input from parents and players alike so please keep any photos, funny stories etc flowing in. I will be the initial point of contact for this so please contact me with anything you have.
As part of the Clubs commitment to progress, we have been active in securing new sponsors for 2008/9. The Youth section as a whole now has an overall "umbrella" sponsor, McDonald's. McDonalds are very keen to help the Youth Section and would like ideas on how they could assist us in achieving the goals of the Club. Please could you chat to your coaches and managers with any ideas that you may have so that we can put them forward. We will be looking to arrange a Youth Section photograph for McDonalds to display in their 7 local restaurants. A full sponsors’ update will be circulated to Club Members soon.
Saturday in order for us to support the 1st Team at one of their home games. This season we have set Saturday 27th September aside for this, and whilst we appreciate that you may have other commitments, we would value their participation at this practice. We have important first tournaments for our section the following week and missing a practice then may disrupt any progress that the coaches have made with the team. There is also a Sussex Girls’ tournament being held at the Club on the 28th September so training would have had to be moved to another venue and this may have proved just as disruptive. The added benefit of this day is that it is an opportunity to show off to our new sponsors.
The Club has 3 Sponsor days set up during the Season, these are as I mentioned before
27/09/08 Crawley v Seaford
01/11/08 Crawley v Pulborough
18/04/08 Crawley v Burgess Hill (last home game of season)
The Club as a whole will be rolling out the red carpet on these dates. We will be entertaining around 40 sponsors with a Buffet Lunch provided by Zari, the Indian Restaurant in Ifield. They will be great social days and a brilliant opportunity to come down and see the club at it's best with all the sections having a "social", and supporting the 1st XV to boot so please put the dates in your diary now!!
Mark, who doubles up as our fixtures secretary, has done a wonderful job on fixtures this year. As you can see from the attached fixture list we have a lot more home fixtures than we did last season. These are ideal opportunities for us to show what a great club Crawley RFC is so please show our guests what a great social group we are and hang around in the club house for a while after the game on a Sunday. This also allows the players to bond as teams and as a Club.
With so much going on this season, and if everyone feels as positive as I do, then I am sure we are all in for a treat this season. I would like to wish you all the best of luck in your teams’ campaigns and if there is anything that you would like to discuss with me, please feel free to contact me at any stage.
Darryll Lamb
Minis Manager
Tel: 07977 946986
Email: darryll_lamb@hotmail.com |
