From John McFadzean
First of all can I congratulate all the Junior Athletes who took part in the West Yorkshire Track & Field league during the summer and who are currently taking part in the winter X-Country League.
For these athletes to progress and receive the coaching and support they need it is important that we have a strong group of coaches in all athletic disciplines.
Whilst we have had a mainly unchanged group who coach the juniors for a number of years there have recently been some changes, i.e. Neil Dutton is taking over the speed group with the help of Will Lander as the previous coaches who have done an excellent job over a number of years are stepping back.
This leaves Richard, Russ and myself coaching and developing the 8 to 14 year olds and none of us are in the first flush of life, in addition as happened to me recently an unexpected illness can put pressure on the other coaches.
Whilst it is great that a number of parents / guardians etc stay on a Tuesday and Thursday and are willing to assist with marshalling the young athletes it would be beneficial if a few of you would consider taking the coaching assistants course or as Neil did the coaching course.
The club are willing to pay for these courses and provide support.
You would not be expected to take over the coaching or commit to every session but to help and assist when you are available.
If anyone is interested please speak to me and I will also be speaking to one or two myself who have shown an interest.
The more coaches the better and it would be good if we could add a female member of our junior coaching team.
Also the club committee believes it would be beneficial to form a small Junior Committee to represent the requirements of the young athletes.
There are a number of parents etc who are assisting with the teams at the X-country and attend the track & field meetings and it would be great to get everyone together as part of this committee three or four times a year.
Again anyone interested contact me.
Now on a lighter note upcoming events.
1. The Saturday Club for 6 to 12 year olds runs from 10:30 to 12:00 hrs each week and is also open to non-harriers and children 6 to 8 who cannot come to the main club nights due to age.
For further details contact me.
2. Saturday 17th of December 2022 Xmas X-country Handicap Races.
These will be staged at Brooklands Nurseries Schloes with a 10:00am registration and 10:30am for the first race.
These are handicapped so everyone has a chance of winning and there is also a nice Cafe for drinks and cake afterwards.
3. Xmas holiday Fun In Athletics runs from Monday 19th of December to Wednesday 21st of December.
Places are limited as we will most probably be inside.
There are a few places left and will be allocated on a first come first served basis, again contact me for details or to book a place.
That’s all
John McFadzean QPM
