NEWCASTLE
PHOENIX
at the club. Since then, coaches, at the request
of parents, have given extra lessons and race
preparation advice. Across the board there has
been significant improvement, as can be seen when
competing against the same riders as they did
previously.
The club is currently undergoing some major
improvements regarding Codes of Conduct that
coaches have to adhere to, presentation evenings
to show cyclist progression, social nights for parents
and the promotion of events. Walton said, “we’ve
identified reasons why the club probably wasn’t
achieving its full potential in the past and have
addressed those issues.” Other developments are
to build a competition MTB circuit and promote the
club to gain new members. Newcastle Phoenix
encourages the communal use of the facilities when
they have been built which means that the cycling
circuits can be enjoyed by all.
Steve told us, “Last year [Newcastle Phoenix]
started a development programme which involved
a major upgrade of the clubs website from a simple
blog to something more professional in appearance
and interactive with social media links.” In the past,
it has been revealed that the club was reluctant to
promote events but are slowly seeing the benefits
of promotion on social media. Since the promotion
at Newcastle Gateshead Skyride, there has been a
constant stream of enquiries about the club. Walton
adds, “the club has a very recognisable strip design
which makes people remember us even if they don’t
know what we’re called.”
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ISSUE 01
Despite their improvements, Steve Walton has revealed
there will be some challenges for the club regarding the
lack of facilities in and around Newcastle. The cyclist
clubs at Sunderland and Middlesbrough have realised
the benefit of closed circuits, particularly for the basic
requirements of coaching under 16’s. Walton continues,
“Until we get them, there’s a limit to what we can do
as far as road and track in particular are concerned.
Ironically, the funding’s not the biggest problem, it’s the
land we need.”
Finally, the ambitions of the club were laid out with
Steve teling us, “We recently made contact with
Sported, who are advising us with this, as well as
constantly sourcing and enquiring about potential sites
for the facilities that we and our region need.” It is
clear that facilities are the main improvement the club
can make but also there is an ambitious target to the
number of members as well as being accepted into
regional and national teams, even as far as ODP level.
Despite their aim to be a successful business with the
maintenance of professionalism, Walton adds “we have
to be as business like as we can be, while obviously
never forgetting why we’re doing what we do in the first
place.”
It is clear that improvements are in progress at
Scotswood Excelsior Sports Academy for Newcastle
Phoenix, they are a club with potential to be a highly
successful due to their dedicated coaches, developing
facilities and community spirit.