Good Evening and Happy Easter.
With the season coming to a close and recent noticeable events happening within the club there has been a lot of work and meetings occurring in the background.
Firstly, we would like to announce the resignation of Youth Chair, Jo Stephenson. We thank you for your work over the past year and look forward to continue seeing you on the side-lines.
Head of Youth, Steve King, has also stepped back, but will continue coaching within the youth section. Steve was tasked with starting the youth section and has brought us to where we are today. We thank you for the extraordinary amount of time you have given to the club and are pleased you have chosen to continue to give your time coaching.
So, looking to the future, we congratulate Paul Stephenson in his appointment as Head of Youth. Paul already has a huge hand in the youth section being DOR and along with his coaching, it was a natural choice. We look forward to where he can take us.
A part of Pauls role as Head of Youth and DOR will be the management of the coaches and the development of structured training plans. Paul has committed to a fail safe program which will see individual training plans being devised and allocated to the relevant age grades enabling all of our cygnets to receive the training they require at the right time. Paul will be seeing these plans in action as he watches over the training sessions, and in monthly progress meetings with his coaching staff to ensure that what he is instructing is effective and rewarding for our members. We look forward to seeing the benefits of this displayed in the future performances of the Swanley youth.
Coach Recruitment
Along with our current roster of coaches we would like to welcome Danny Smith and Michael Silve. Both will be on the field helping out as soon as we have initiated the DBS and coach training process with the RFU. As we always say, we will welcome anyone who is willing to volunteer their time, so if you feel you can spare a few hours a week then please get in touch, there is a role for everyone within the club.
Over the road, at the Orchards Academy. We are pleased to announce the expansion of our already successful school outreach program, with the appointment of Stuart Tate. Stuart will join Paul in the new school year coaching the Year 9s and 10s, we look forward to reaping the benefits of this great school program.
Youth Committee Recruitment
Along with his new coaching role, Stuart Tate will be taking on the role of Fixtures and Communications Secretary solely for the youth section. As we are sure that most of you are aware, Paul is not the most technologically advanced and does struggle with the talky video phones! Stuart will therefore act as a conduit to communicate all updates, news and feedback from Paul, the coaches and the committee to you, the parents and vice versa. All communications will be published on Clubzapp as an official channel as opposed to the current WhatsApp groups. If you wish to feedback to the club/Paul/coaches in any shape or form then please email
stuart@swanleyrfc.co.uk
We currently have a separate group for the youth parents on Clubzapp and will also develop separate groups for the different age grades in the near future. If you are not yet on the separate group chat please email Stuart so he can add you on.
With the U14s having a good taste of competitive rugby over the last 2 seasons, Stuarts biggest remit will be the communication with local clubs to organise fixtures and joint sessions for all our age grades. We have listened to your feedback and we are keen to provide plenty of opportunity for the kids to experience varied training sessions across the county and the multitude of youth festivals that are run throughout the season by the RFU. With Stuarts experience as Fixtures Secretary for the seniors and his overflowing phonebook of contacts we are certain he will be successful in achieving his goals.
Following on from this, we are pleased to announce our inclusion in the upcoming Blackheath Youth festival on April 28th. This tournament is for U7's -U11s, we will be aiming to attend with our U10s-U12s group which will play as one team and also our U8s team. If we are short a few players we can always combine with other clubs who may be short on numbers as well. Further information and details of the event will be issued by Paul at the next youth session on April 7th.
The committee would like to thank you all for your continued support of the club, and we hope that you are as excited as we are about our next chapter within the youth section.
Please come and join us next Saturday 6th April for a family fun day, cheering on the Men's side as they look to bring a big WIN to the nest against Charlton Park, festivities start from 1pm!
