S & Y Presidents Report for the S & Y & LRHA AGMs.

JACs & JDCs

Immediately after the S & Y AGM last year , we started work on organising the Junior Development Centres in line with England Hockey Guidelines.

I am pleased that we did this .  It was very hard work, sorting out venues, coaches and administrators. Publicity and circulating information to appropriate destinations is always an uncertain exercise. You never know if it reaches the right people. We did for the first time send out as much information as possible electronically. I addition to Jane Jelley’s hard work, 52 Letters were sent to all our senior schools, addressed to the Head of PE.

We had 8 Centres throughout Leicestershire and Rutland and the numbers were OK considering the difficulties.

The difficulty with the JDCS and the Junior Academy Centres was the time of year.  JDCs were in the August holidays and the JACs in the January and February during the bad weather. A problem I had pointed out long before we set these up. However we followed EH guidelines and were the only Midlands County to do so.

With the JDCs there were consequently, problems with the availability of both the youngsters and the Coaches and Administrators. This proved to be a nightmare at times.

The JDCs were at :---

Melton, U-13 & U-14 age groups, where we had 45 registered. 

Groby Community College, U-15 & U-16, 25 registered.

King Edward, Coalville, U-14 & U-15, 25 registered.

St Margarets Pastures, U-13 7 U-14, 65 registered

Lutterworth College, U-13 & U-14, 25 registered

Welland Park Market Harborough, U-15 & U-16, 25 registered

Uppingham School, U-17 30 registered

Loughborough Grammar, U-17 10 registered.

Despite the difficulties the JDCs were very successful and the Coaches nominated youngsters to progress to the Junior Academy Centres. One thing we must improve on next year is to ensure that those nominated will commit to the JACs and not deprive others of a place. We are indebted to 5 of the 8 venues who assisted us greatly with pitch costs.

The Loughborough JDCs lack of support was a big disappointment to me, as we had hoped that with thriving activities at Loughborough Town, Loughborough Sharks and several hockey playing Schools plus Loughborough Carillion having a good junior Section, there would be many keen youngsters sign up. The JDCs concluded with a series of matches between our various Centres and thanks go to Deirdre Sanders for arranging these matches.

Core Skills.

During the Summer of 2009 and during late October and November, we ran Core Skills sessions for those who wished to attend. This was very popular and the number of around 80 on each occasion. Plus we used England Development Squad players, based at the University, to do the coaching And they were very good, under the direction of Grant Sutcliffe.  The skills of those attending improved noticeably.

JACs.

In January the JACs were due to commence with Assessment days on the 10^th and 17^th of the month.  Then the snows came and we had to cancel these two days plus another one in February. We had to devise a new assessment programme and certainly lost some ground during this time. The Coaches who were appointed, did a good job making up lost ground and working as much as they could to the Syllabus supplied by EH. Inevitably this made extra work for the Administrators. Rachel Mould, Ketan Mavani, Janet Hickman, Neal Edwards, Sue Hale, Chris Palmer, Collette Porter, Terri Mason,  Miles Howard and Jacky Hutchinson.They all had their work cut out and I thank them for all that they did and are still doing.! What would we do without our volunteers.!!

All our JAC training took place and St Margarets Pastures and we are indebted to Lynn Morris for all her help and co-operation.

We had difficulties with the availability of players for a host of reasons. These were connected to schools and the bad weather meant that clubs re-arranged league matches that clashed with our training. This was a major factor in us not being able to support an U-17 Boys team.  I would point out to clubs that the Single System, ie the JACs, have priority over club matches and so those clubs taking players from our training sessions did so against EH guidelines and priorities.

We have run 9 age group teams.U-13, U-14, U-15,U-16, Boys & Girls and an U-17 Girls team. Because of the lack of numbers coming, particularly from the Loughborough JDC, we did not have enough players  for an U-17 Boys team. We are the only County to have as many teams entered.

Our coaches and administrators have done well. I do however look for even greater things next year.

As a result of the JAC training there have been Development matches, Qualification matches and finally Classification matches.

For all our matches, home and away we have to provide umpires. We have been greatly assisted by the Midlands Young Umpires group. But to find so many umpires on the same day has been a major headache for Jane Jelley.

We have already outlined a Draft programme for next season, which will be finalised at our next meeting.

JAC Matches

I am very pleased to tell you that of our 9 age group squads, all finished in the top tier and no lower than 4^th.

We had winners with the U-15 Girls and the U-13 Boys.

I think these are fantastic results and everyone involved, Players, Coaches, Team Managers and Parents need thanking and congratulating. Having said all that I hope we can work on things and do even better next time. We must not forget the work of our Executive in all of this and the work done in various areas. So a big thank you and congratulations to everyone.

Leagues & Competitions

There have been a considerable number of Leagues & Competitions followed by Mini Hockey competitions. These have all been very successfully run by Nicky Collett. Jane Jelley and Deirdre Sanders. We are very extremely grateful to these ladies for running our Leagues & Competitions. They do a terrific job. There is work to be done though, to bring the Boys up to the same level of involvement as the Girls. We are looking at this and any ideas are welcome.

David Hogg has run the Club minis and he also presides over a number of Club Junior Festivals. We are indebted to David for organising this.

Details of our Competition winners, too many to list, are available for your perusal.

We are also pursuing, with assistance of Leicestershire & Rutland Sport the promotion and development of Quicksticks. A game for 7 – 11 year olds. This also has the objective of introducing Hockey to Teachers and Students who have little or no knowledge of Hockey.

Website.

Since last October, thanks to expert work from Sara Treanor, we have our own website. Jane Jelley is our webmaster and items for this should be sent to her.  Our website address is available as you leave. Address available as you leave.;:- www.schoolandyouth.org.uk

Presentation Evening.

On the 29^th of April several of our youngsters and officials attended a Presentation evening at County Hall and were presented by the Chairman of the County Council, Mr Roger Wilson, with awards in recognition of their ability and work for LRHA S & Y

Sponsorship.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we have secured a sponsor. Notts Sports have entered into a three year deal with us and wehope that this arrangement will be beneficial to both parties. (Deal about to be signed and starts on Aug 1^st 2010 ).

Finally, Finally but by no means last in importance, I would like to say a very big thank you to my Executive Jane Jelley, Nicky Collett, Deirdre Sanders, Jeanne Freeman, Michael Condon, David Hogg andAshley Denman. Not of course forgetting Wendy Allum, who despite wishing to step down continues to do our accounts.

 A big thank you to all for attending tonight, to Nicky for arranging the venue and to everyone who has worked for the benefit and support of LRHA Schools and Youth throughout the year.

David Cawthorn 04/05/2010