Growing our Junior Club Membership
Our Journey – from 2 schools to 10
• In December 2012 we met with RM to discuss how we could access
primary schools.
• RM introduced us to SGO
• SGO contacted schools and we ran a Level 2 School Games event for the
first time in March 2013
• 2 schools attended – we coached them and umpired some matches
• As a follow up we ran 6 Saturday morning session in early summer 2013 –
we had 35 attendees
• 25 new Junior players joined the club in September 2013
• In March 2014 we ran our second Level 2 school games event – 10 schools
attended
• We will be running Saturday morning sessions this summer
• For the first time ever we were able to enter teams into the Avon U10 and
U12 Leagues
How Did We Find Coaches?
• Members of our Youth Development Team volunteered to attend the Level
2 Games event
• Our club coach volunteered to run our follow up Saturday morning
programme
• Having coaches who were friendly and empathetic to the needs of young
people was crucial
How Did We Find Schools?
• The SGO contacted all schools on our behalf
• Information regarding the games were hosted on the CSP website
• The success of our Year 1 efforts meant that more schools wanted to be
involved in Year 2
What Delivery Did We Do?
• On the day of the tournament all schools received a 45 minute coaching
session.
• We umpired all of the matches
• We ran free follow up sessions for 6 consecutive Saturdays in early
summer.
• We ensured we integrated our ‘new’ players into the regular club sessions
in September.
How Did We Make It Sustainable?
• We are fortunate to get all pitch time for juniors free of charge.
• We paid our lead coach £35 per session for our 6 week programme.
• We now see this as part of our offer and our main way of recruiting
players into our Juniors.
• The costs have been met through club funds – having 25 new members
paying subs from September has more than covered the costs.
Our Key Success Factors
• Partnership between our club the SGO and England Hockey
• Keen team of volunteers who understand the importance for the club to
have tangible links with local schools
• Free follow up club sessions – vital to making the link sustainable and
recruiting players