Juniors are the future of our sport
Petanque England is working on a new initiative aiming to establish a reformed structure for young players. It moves away from having one person in control of the Youth programme and looks to organise junior playing on both regional and multi-regional basis. Hopefully this will lead to some skilled juniors moving up to national level later. There will need to be a selection process for juniors to step up to National level and new positions will need to be created to give a platform of support to all juniors. These will be established as the year progresses.
Good work is being done with a new Junior facebook page with news and events advertises as well as skills training ideas. You can find this by searching ‘Petanque England Juniors’ in Facebook, or by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/petjunu18
What can the Regions do?
Regional / multi-regional activity is required so the old ways of parents and guardians driving to a single country central venue for juniors will decrease. The time and travel commitment for everyone involved in these past methods were not only costly but also lead to less regional grass roots work to brings juniors on.
What is now needed is for regions to get behind the national plan and encourage juniors to get involved in events of any kind. The first this year is on the 12th March as so far we have two events, one in Worthing and one in Bury St Edmunds. We need more regions to join in and plan events on this day and future dates.
How can it work? What is the plan?
At the moment coaching at all levels is carried out by Regional coaches but Regions may need to appointment regional junior coaches to help with the load. These could be the current Regional coach wearing two hats or another coach in the region working with the Regional coach and the Regional Youth Development Officer if they have one. Every region should have a voice in discussions of junior’s progress and how best PE can support their growth. That is why they will need to fill the position of Regional Junior Coach. We need your help and feeback.
After the 12th March…
We have dates for future events in the calendar and they will be made known as we finalise venues. The plan is to support grass root juniors up to National level if they want to take that step in the game.
Phil Boarder is co-ordinating this activity and is available to help any Region who has questions or issues. You can contact him at phil.boarder@hotmail.co.uk
