DUNFERMLINE
Youth
“Youth Rugby is hugely important to our club and we want to build
on the energy and passion for rugby to ensure it plays an even more
vital role in the clubs progression. We have around 300 kids in 10
age-groups, in our youth section.
The youth are obviously the future of the club, so nurturing the
players, developing the coaches and engaging the parents are the
foundations we are building on. We achieved accreditation from
Positive Coaching Scotland and the Bill McLaren Foundation, which
we saw as vital to crystallising our club culture and providing a clear
message to players, parents, members, sponsors, funders and the
wider community, of our commitment to further improving players
coaching and playing experience. 300 kids are testament to our
‘player centred’ approach.”
Integration
“Ensuring that our U18 players move up to play in the senior ranks
is a challenge we are in the process of addressing. We retain quite
a few but the drop off is obviously recognised by rugby as a whole.
Our main challenge is players moving out of the area and into further
education. Dunfermline Rugby Club enjoyed a superb campaign
last time around as they managed to clinch promotion.
We are and will be looking at how to create a compelling reason for
these players to stay at the club and also addressing the barriers
that cause them to stop playing i.e. transport. We have some good
ideas, but I’m sure the challenges will need us to think creatively
and with an eye on consistency of approach, to ensure the retention
is sustainable. Hopefully we can keep more of our young players, so
they don’t give up on over 10years of playing for our club.”
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ISSUE 49