Running a youths section

moycullen14

Hi,

I'm involved in running the youths section in our club (Munster J1 div 3, in a GAA heartland, no real rugby culture in the town) and we are finding it very hard to keep the youth's section going. Our particular problem is finding people to coach/mentor/manage youth teams (U13-u19). Over the last few years we have lost a number of coaches for various reasons (work, relocation, etc) and have been unable to replace them. The whole structure is creaking and I'm afraid if nothing is done the whole thing will collapse with the obvious long-term repercussions for the club.

Does anyone have any experience of turning a situation like this around or know of successful strategies for getting more adult involvement? We have no end of people who will help a little but find it impossible to get people to take responsibility for organising/running a team and all that that entails (training/phone calls/registration etc, etc0. Is the volunteer culture dying?

TIA

profitius

I have a few suggestions. I'm not sure how helpful they'll be but they might.

-Advertise for people to help out. Put an ad in a local paper or something similar.
-Split the responsibility between a few people instead of one person doing most or let them take turns ie if theres 4 people there one person does it every 4 weeks.
-Have a reward at the end of the season like a night out or something. Little things like that people look forward to as well as being told how important they are
-Contact Munster for advice. I'm sure they have experts for these type of situations.
-Ask the kids to ask their parents. Some parents might be willing but don't know about it.
-Make out a leaflet on a simple A4 sheet of paper explaining the role (and the personal benefits it can bring). Some people migh think theres more to it than there really is.

onlyrocknroll

Hey moycullen14.

I'm afraid that I don't have any direct experience in this kind of area so I don't know if this advice will be of any help but maybe you could contact Volunteer Ireland at www.volunteer.ie to find some people to help.

People who wish to do voluntary work register with them, state what areas they'd like to do some work in, and they organise placements with a list of organisations they deal with. I know that sports and community organisations are a big part of this work.

I'm sure that there'd be some people in or near your community who'd be willing to help, even if they don't have experience or interest in rugby. Apparently a lot of people have time to volunteer these days for obvious reasons.

ormond lad

moycullen14 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm involved in running the youths section in our club (Munster J1 div 3, in a GAA heartland, no real rugby culture in the town) and we are finding it very hard to keep the youth's section going. Our particular problem is finding people to coach/mentor/manage youth teams (U13-u19). Over the last few years we have lost a number of coaches for various reasons (work, relocation, etc) and have been unable to replace them. The whole structure is creaking and I'm afraid if nothing is done the whole thing will collapse with the obvious long-term repercussions for the club.

Does anyone have any experience of turning a situation like this around or know of successful strategies for getting more adult involvement? We have no end of people who will help a little but find it impossible to get people to take responsibility for organising/running a team and all that that entails (training/phone calls/registration etc, etc0. Is the volunteer culture dying?

TIA

Contact munster rugby development office which is now based in the National Technological Park UL, the RDOs are responsible for development of rugby in the province and will be able to help

JustinDee

There is no such thing as an RDO anymore.
There is a Community Rugby Officer (CRO) and there is a Coaching Development Officer (CDO).

Which area are we talking here?

padser

moycullen14 wrote: »

We have no end of people who will help a little but find it impossible to get people to take responsibility for organising/running a team and all that that entails (training/phone calls/registration etc, etc0.

As already suggested it seems like splitting up the tasks would be the best idea here.

One obvious way would be to split the admin / coaching. So just looking for people to take on one specific task.

Tim Robbins

moycullen14 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm involved in running the youths section in our club (Munster J1 div 3, in a GAA heartland, no real rugby culture in the town) and we are finding it very hard to keep the youth's section going. Our particular problem is finding people to coach/mentor/manage youth teams (U13-u19). Over the last few years we have lost a number of coaches for various reasons (work, relocation, etc) and have been unable to replace them. The whole structure is creaking and I'm afraid if nothing is done the whole thing will collapse with the obvious long-term repercussions for the club.

Does anyone have any experience of turning a situation like this around or know of successful strategies for getting more adult involvement? We have no end of people who will help a little but find it impossible to get people to take responsibility for organising/running a team and all that that entails (training/phone calls/registration etc, etc0. Is the volunteer culture dying?

TIA

I played youths growing up and appreciate the difficulties to some extent.

1. Arrange the games, training so it does not clash with the GAA. usually the GAA do Saturday and youths Rugby is Sunday.
2. Point out how it compliments the GAA. When the GAA take a break in the winter, the Rugby keeps going. When the Rugby takes a break in the Summer, the GAA is in full swing.
3. Get the parents involved. Apparently the number one way to get people to volunteer is to ask them. I am not being a smart *ss here I heard this from a Rugby development officer.
4. Get on the rugby development officers in your area. Get them to help you.
5. Stick up posters in the school etc.
6. Get the county council to erect a signpost to your club.

Tim Robbins

Also make sure parents know they do not need to have played rugby to help out. This is a great thing about rugby a lot of coaches, refs whatever never played it - growing up.

The IRFU run some great coaches that can bring people up to speed really quickly.

ormond lad

JustinDee wrote: »

There is no such thing as an RDO anymore.
There is a Community Rugby Officer (CRO) and there is a Coaching Development Officer (CDO).

Which area are we talking here?

Sorry i forgot but you knew what i meant...

boredatwork82

Hey there,
I know exactly what you are at.
I currently coach 3 teams in a senior club in a big town. Its a massive task.
I am the rugby side of things. I feel that if I have to organise buses, car pooling, refs, collecting of subs, sending out of texts, organising jersey washes, and collection of them, and medical bag etc. that the rugby will suffer.
I ensure that I get a good parent to do this for me. I tell him what i want, and they do it. This allows me time to focus on rugby.

You need to set up a checklist for a manager, and then appoint one for each team. As some said, just ask people, the amount of people that love to get involved is huge, but they feel that they have little or no rugby experience so they won't volunteer. You have to actively seek, and ask people to volunteer. The checklist will be an assurance that they can do it. , group texts and advertisements don't work too well.
When you ask some one have a definite role in mind for them. let them know what the role requires.

For one of my teams we are currently setting up a parents committee. They will be my contact for any fundraising or requirements, they have set up a rota for driving to matchs, and I can tell them if I need somethingh ( sandwichs, bus, car poolimng etc.) It also gets more people on the side, you can always grab these people to fill water bottles, run in and out of the dressing room etc, this is vital as you seem to be short on rugby heads. They need to focus on rugby not all the other stuff. This will benefit the players rugby.

We have also set up a mentor program, where a member of the clubs adult 1st team, mentor a team. They don't necessarilly come down all the time, but the less experienced coachs can pick their brain, get ideas, and drills and advice from them. The kids will then come down to his match on saturday afternoon, to watch his coach/mentor. That kid has to bring a parent, who is another potential volunteer.

Just to go back and emphasis the main thing - Group texts don't work, texts don't work. Define all the roles that need filling in the club. Preferable 1 manager, 1 head coach, and then a supporting coach/manager/lacky water bottle filler etc. Then approach people with specific roles. When you get as many of the roles filled as possible, send an organisation chart with all the people and their roles on it. This will force them to be involved, as people will approach them and know they are involved, and they can't back down to easily or they may lose face!

On the player side of thing. Ask every kid individually, or get a number and phone them. Most kids feel like a superstar if a coach rings them up and asks them to play rugby for the club, regardless of how good or useless they are, the bad guys are more likely to be club men, managers, coachs committee men etc when they are older. Thats in my experience anyway.
When you get a kids name number, and date of birth, compile a list of players for each age group. this will be unbeleivabley useful when you pass teams onto new coachs.

And don't listen to 3rd parties. So many times I have been told, Johnny doesn't want to play rugby anymore, and it turns out to be rubbish. Ring him up, hey johnny wanna play rugby, yeah sure. but I am playing soccer this weekend. Thats ok. I will see you next weekend so. Thanks bye.

I hope there is some useful advice in all of this. A little planning and organisation may make the whole situation seem a bit less daunting, and give yo a bit of focus.