Jan / Feb 2008

Club Summer Programme

Spring should be just around the corner which means preparations for the summer athletics season are well underway!

After training all through autumn Winter and early spring we suddenly hit our main season for competitions of various sorts.

We mentioned the Forth Valley League in our last newsletter, and we no have provisional dates for the various meetings, so please pencil these in the diary now!

Meeting 1:              Thursday  17 April
Meeting 2:              Thursday  15 May
Meeting 3               Thursday  19 June
Meeting 4:              Saturday 19 July (Grangemouth) (!!!)
Presidents Select meeting (invitation event) Saturday: 6 Sep

The first three meetings take place on Thursday evenings, starting at 7:00 and will be at Livingstone or Pitreavie (we’ve not been told the venues yet). We like to have 4 or 5 competitors in age group (M& F) to cover the individual events and have a relay team (4 x 100m). The relays are usually the highlight of any meeting and it can be great fun working together as a team.

Meeting 4 takes place on a Saturday. This year, for some unknown reason, the league organisers have provisionally arranged this for the 19 July which is when many of our members are on holiday.

The Presidents select meeting is an invitation event where composite teams representing Div 1,  Div 2 and a  President’s select mixture compete against each other.

With Shelagh and David Gibson standing down after looking after the team for the last three years, we are in the process of putting in place a new league management team to organise our team. So far George Miller, Erin McIntosh and Roddy MacLeod have volunteered to help. Both Erin and Roddy, as former competitors, know how these events run so will be able to help George with team management on the evening.

We would like at least one more parent to share team management duties, so to all other parents please consider yourselves asked! What has worked well in then past is where one parent can take on the responsibility of co-ordinating an age group (ie the one that your child is in).

 Also in the summer we have our own club Mini-Championship evenings and the provisional dates for these are:

Mon 12 May:        800m & Shot Putt
Mon 2 June:          100m & Long Jump
Wed 11 Jun:          Water of Leith Mini-Marathon

We would like to remind everyone that these are open to all members, whatever evening you normally attend on, so if you normally attend on a Wednesday, please come along to the Monday night Mini- Championships, and bring a friend or two

For the first 2 nights we award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the first three in each age group (U11, U13 and U15), Boys and Girls. For the Water of Leith mini-marathon we award Gold and Silver to the first 2 in each age group and a bronze to everyone else – it is a bit of an achievement to get all the way round.

In order to stage these events we need a squad of about 10 parents / helpers to assist the coaches with recording times and distances etc. For the Water of Leith mini-marathon we will need a few of the fitter parents to run round with the juniors, so if ye need an incentive to get moving, this could be it. The distance is about 4.25 km

 Finally, last year we introduced a couple of Saturday morning family fun runs around Harlaw reservoir on the last Saturdays of April and May, so if there is demand we will do these again. The distance around Harlaw is about 3.5 km.

 In the final week of this term we’d like to put on “come and try it evenings” on Mon and Wed with jumps and throws, so bring along a friend or two. We’ll also have some “come and try it” evenings in the summer for other events.

 Once we have all the summer term events confirmed we’ll send out a summer term programme, which will also note all the Monday holidays when the school as closed, and the week of Balerno Childrens Gala, when we don’t have Mon or Wed training.

Fun Runs and other events

There are a couple of other events coming along which might be of interest to younger members and parents:

Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile: Sunday 16 March: Be part of a national event, and raise some cash for those in less poorer parts of the world. There will be a Sport Relief Mile in Edinburgh, starting in Princes St Gardens. It costs just £5 for adults and £2 for U16’s to enter the Mile, or £12 for family entry (2 adults, 2 children).

To enter go to www.sportrelief.com/themile  or call 0871 200 1515.

“Welcome to the World” Young Athlete Relay races Saturday 29^th March (morning):   The World cross-country championships are coming to Holyrood Park on Sunday 30^th March, so there will be a chance to see some of the world’s top runners in the flesh. The day before this, on the Saturday there will be relay races for teams of three for U11 and U13 boys and girls (ie four races). Each person in the team runs a lap of about 1.5 Km.

It would be good if we could enter at least one team in each category!

Could parents reply (a) if their child would like to take part and (b) if you would be willing to be the “team manager” for the team of three.

There is a charge of £12.00 per team, and entries need to be submitted before 15 March.

Race Times:
U11 Girls                10:15
U11 Boys                10:45
U13 Girls                 11:15
U13 Boys                11:45

Shelagh Jackson retires from coaching

As many of you are aware, Shelagh has stood down from coaching as it was becoming increasingly difficult to combine this with a demanding job which often required additional hours.

Shelagh started with Harmeny as a junior at the age of 8, and went on to become a highly successful young athlete, winning the Scottish Schools High Jump and Long Jump titles for Balerno High School as well as many regional and National Championship medals in Harmeny colours. She moved on to compete for Edinburgh in the UK league before returning to Harmeny three years ago as a coach.

As well as coaching Shelagh put in a lot of time organising our team for the Forth Valley League and will be greatly missed. We wish her all the best in her job,  and who knows, we might still see her from time to time.

New Welfare Officer

One of the Shelagh’s other roles was the club’s Welfare Office. We’re pleased to announce that Catherine Barr has agreed to take on this role.

The club’s Welfare policy is available on our web-site, and is included in the information pack which was handed out at the beginning of term, and is (or should be) handed out to all new starters.

V is for Volunteering

We hope that all families are now comfortable with taking a turn at helping the coaches on training nights. I’d like to thank everyone who comes along to help, and especially Jenny Barr for organising the rota.

There’s a reminder of what is involved and what to expect when helping out at the end of this newsletter. 

As hinted at earlier (in case anyone didn’t notice!) we’re looking for volunteers to take on some of the tasks for team management so we can provide more opportunities for the juniors to test themselves in a few competitions.

There are also couple of other admin tasks behind the scenes in club organisation where we could do with a few more regular helpers, (eg taking the register) then again, please get in touch – some of us have been around for several years!

Coaching Update

Three of our Level 1 coaches (Erin McIntosh, Robyn Hewat and Gail Crosbie) were enrolled for a course at the next level (UK Athletics Level 2), last autumn, but it was cancelled. Then they registered again for a course due to be held in Inverness and booked accommodation and travel….then that one was cancelled (at very short notice)! So fingers crossed it will be third time lucky now that a new programme of courses has been announced by Scottish athletics.

We’re also hoping that three more volunteers will take the first step on the coaching ladder and attend the Level 1 course. If anyone else would like to consider this, please get in touch and there is also information about the dates and locations at www.scottishathletics.org.uk .

Level 1 is fairly simple and is designed for parents who have little or no background in athletics, but it is the first step. A couple of our older juniors who did the course a couple of years ago felt they could have given the course..!

 Keeping you informed

The club web-site has had a major refresh / re-write, and is worth a quick (and regular) look-see to see what is happening, and hopefully answer any questions you may have about the club, competitions, welfare etc.

These newsletters will continue to be printed for handing out at training, as well as going out by email, and will also be loaded onto the website under the  section. Any suggestions for the web-site (any bugs or missing links) would be appreciated.

Results

In the final meeting of the East District league held at Deans (Livingston) on January we had several our Under 11’s sampled the delights of a not-too-muddy cross-country race. Results

There was a bit of a panic the night before when the phones lines started buzzing: “Who’s got the Numbers?” “Tom, but he’s on holiday”, “We’ll improvise”. “Who’s got the vests?” “David, I think” “Got the vests?” “Yes” Right sizes?” “Think so”, “Any spare numbers?” “Yes” “Pins?” “Yes” “See you there” ”What time” “Before 1:00”.

There was a bit of panic beginning to set in 15 minutes before the races when “the management” hadn’t arrived (parking stewards didn’t really know when side streets were log-jammed), but it all fell into place. The last vest and number were on with a full 90 seconds before the U11 race started…

And everyone got safely round with some interestingly competititive performances!

Hopefully we won’t see any mud on the running track or long-jump pits this summer!

Thanks to the Davids (Law and Gibson) for organising the team, the parents who came along, Bethany’s mum for washing the vests, and to one of the club stalwarts, Ian Hislop, who is one of the race organisers. One of the positions we’d like to fill for next autumn is a team manager for the cross-country season, but there will be a reminder nearer the time.

Other Admin

We will be having the next a Parents / Coach meeting on the evening of Wed 12 March, 7:45 at Currie Rugby Club.  The main discussion will be on finalising organisation for the Forth Valley League, but these meetings are open to all parents who want to find out more or contribute assistance in some way.

(A reminder of  Parent / Helper Tasks was included in the Newsletter)

Membership Update

A list of those who have sent in their membership fees as for this year is attached. We allow a period of grace of a couple of weeks for new starts to see if it’s something they want to do regularly, but if continuing to attend we do require youngsters to join. The coaches have the right to refuse admission to non-members after the initial grace period.

Junior memberships received as at 22/2/08. If your name is on the list below, please ignore the attached membership form.

If your name is not on the list below, and you have been attending since before the beginning of January 2008, then membership fees are now due. Please complete the attached form and return membership fees as soon as possible.

(The membership form can also be downloaded from http://www.harmenyac.org.uk/Mship_form%200708.doc )

V is for Volunteering

As mentioned in the newsletter there are a few events coming along where we would like some additi0nal help in co-ordinating junior teams. If you can co-ordinate one of the teams / age groups please get in touch.

Name: …………………………………………………………………………..

Meet the world U11 / U13 relays, teams of 3, Saturday 29 March

Age Group (U11 G, U11 B, U13 G, U13 B): ……………………………………

 Forth Valley League

Age Group co-ordination (U11 G, U11 B, U13 G, U13 B): ………………………..

Can you help with other club admin (eg register at training)?   ……

Do you want more info about coaching courses? …………….

Please hand in at training or email Bob Douglas