MINI MATTERS September 2014 Good Morning, Datchworth Coaches, Managers, Players, Parents and Supporters, I hope you all enjoyed another good training session in the sun yesterday morning, the good weather held out again for a further week which makes training a real pleasure! Next week, (September 28 th ), is our last training session before we start playing matches and the following weekend, (October 5 th ), we have the U7s and U8s away at Letchworth Tag Festival and the U9s, 10s, 11s and 12s away at Luton. Car Parking: Next weekend, (28 th Sept), the U10s are on Car Parking Duty it will be busy with 2 x Youth Home Fixtures also taking place. First XV Saturday 20 th September - Datchworth Vs Welwyn Last Saturday was the first of our First XV Mini Saturdays, 14 boys turned out for a hot lunch in the Club House, a game of mixed age group touch and then to watch our First Team enjoy a hard fought but well deserved victory over local rivals Welwyn. A big thank you to all who came along and to Ian Little for organising the buffet for players and parents. I think everyone had a great afternoon and we will look forward to doing it again in February when the First team are playing Hitchin.
Team & Player Photographs: Next Sunday 28 th September we are planning to take Squad and individual Photographs for each of the Mini Age Groups, (this is obviously optional)! If players have Datchworth Blue Shorts and Green Socks please wear them next weekend for the photographs, Coaches / Managers will bring match shirts. The Squad Photographs will be used on the Web Site and will be available to buy at a cost of 10 per picture. Graham and Jason from the U10s have kindly agreed to run the photograph sessions for each age group and we will get through this as quickly as possible to minimise impact on training time. Hopefully these pictures will be popular gifts for Parents and Grand Parents and could be a good fund raiser for the club. I have included an illustrative mock-up of the type of image we expect to have for each player below: To get through all age groups in a single morning I wonder if Managers, Coaches and Parents would be prepared to extend training a little to start at 10AM next weekend, that way each age group should still get the same training time albeit in many cases broken across two sessions to accommodate the pictures, we hope to do each age group in less than 30 minutes but provisionally we have assumed the following Photograph Schedule: U7s -10 till 10:30AM U8s -10:30 till 11:00AM U9s 11:00 till 11:30AM U10s 11:30 till 12:00 Noon U11s 12:00 till 12:30 U12s 12:30 12:45 (smaller group hopefully earlier)
If Coaches, Managers and Parents are ok with this I would be most grateful for your support next weekend. An order form for pictures will be available in the Club House next weekend for any parents wishing to buy a picture. Tuck Shop: The Mini Section Tuck shop was in action again yesterday morning, and the girls were again able to report a healthy profit. We are getting some fresh stock for next weekend, do let us know if you have any requests or suggestions. Mid-Week Training: This Wednesday evening (24 th September), we have the third mid-week training session. Last week we again had a reasonable turn out from the U9s and U10s, we were a bit short of numbers from U11s and 12s; it would be good to see a few more this week if possible. The training takes place again this week on the lower back pitch with the floodlights, the training will be from 6 till 7 for U9s and U10s followed by 7 till 8 for the U11s and U12s. We are asking for 2.50 a week to take part in these sessions to cover the costs of the external coach. I would welcome any feedback on the mid-week training sessions, would parents like to see this continue throughout the season, would people prefer a later start? It might be that the format is a one and a half hour session for all age groups? Thank-you Simon: Most of you will know that Simon Little my predecessor as Mini Chairman moved up with his son to the Youth Section at the end of last season. I was very pleased to present Simon with a signed photograph of all of the Mini Section as a thank you for his hard work and commitment to Datchworth Mini s over a number of years. Simon achieved a number of things as Chairman of the Mini s but perhaps most obvious are the modern Match Shirts now worn across the section on Match days. Training Space Sunday 28 th September Next weekend we have two Youth Teams playing home games so things might be very busy for parking, training and in the bar. On the assumption that one Youth Match will take place on the First Team Pitch and another on the Second team pitch we should be able to
maintain the allocation as below, with the other Youth teams training behind the village hall. If the First Team pitch is not available for the Youth Section we will have to ask more of the Minis to train on the club house side behind the first team pitch and potentially at the Village Hall to free up the Training Pitch for a Youth Game. Provisional Allocation (Subject to Change and Confirmation - 28 th September 14): U7s Training Area 1 + 2 U8s - Training Area 4 U9s Training Area 5 + 6 U10s Area 3 + Training Pitch (Farm Land End) to 22 U11s Training Pitch 22 to 10 M Line U12s Training Pitch 10M line to dead-ball line (Club House End) RFU Accredited Club: I was delighted to announce to the Mini Section yesterday morning that the Club has been given RFU Accredited status. In the run up to the World Cup next year where we hope to see a surge of interest in the game and the potential to recruit new players this is a very positive indicator of the health of our club. The RFU accreditation is based upon the six Key Drivers identified as crucial to developing a strong, healthy club: 1. Retaining & Developing Players 2. Recruiting New Players
3. Recruiting & Retaining High Quality Coaches, Volunteers & Referees 4. Effective & Efficient Facilities 5. Effective & Efficient Management and Governance 6. Int egration with the Local Community The RFU accreditation comes with the opportunity to add RFU signage at the club and accreditation certification around the club house. Find out more about RFU accreditation by looking at: http://www.rfu.com/clubaccreditation Thank you all again for getting involved and supporting our Club. I will see you all on Sunday Morning for a prompt 10:00AM start for 2014/15 Season Team Photographs and our final pre match Training session. Fingers crossed for one more week of sunshine! Andrew Howard Chairman Mini Section Mob 07880 179 365 Emails andrewhoward774@gmail.com / andrew.howard@capita.co.uk