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In the Beginning
In September 2003 two Warley RFC players Spencer Lamb and Karl Blick decided to start a Youth Section. Warley has had kids teams before but the lack of a suitable facility and the difficulty of getting fixtures consopired in their demise.
There were three main reasons for establishing a youth setup; First there was location, the club after many years of wandering had found their home at Tat Bank Road and with a lot of work the club was now suitable for a youth set up. Secondly the team had nearly dissappeared two years before and whilst a steady stream of fresh players was coming in they were not building a third team and thus a secure future. Last but not least the RFU is increasingly limiting funding to clubs that look to expand the game.
The first year was spent promoting and trying to get numbers in, it was not thought sensible to play other teams as nearly all the youngsters were new to rugby. Slowly numbers built up to 30 players with a lot of hard work.
Year two was the true start of a great adventure, there were teams at U11, U13 and U15 competing against a range of opposition. The U15 first ever game was versus our near neighbours Wednesbury and our first try was scored by Ben "Sheepie" Edwards. The season was to prove along haul for some but overall it was a great success.
Support from Earl of Sandwich sandwich chain bought us three kits and it was with great pride that we saw them march out to play fully kitted out.
Thus the hard work was started, take a look at some photos, they show why it was all worthwhile.
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The Next Step
The other main part of the youth setup was the less interesting but equally important structure, Coaching, Committeee and procedures.
The foundation was the committee made up of Chairman Dick Timmons, Treasurer/Secretary Stacey Carter, Administrator Spencer Lamb and Coach Karl Blick.
The next step was building up the coaching setup, fortunately we got great support from the players and numbers quickly built up. After CRB checks were carried out we could count on Steve Powell, Kevin Potter, Chris Thorne.
The final piece of the jigsaw was the Seal Of Approval, this took a year of hard work but was finally achieved by March 2005. Simply it is the RFU kite mark for an organised and efficiently run Youth setup, fullfilling all the criteria on inclusiveness, fairness and child protection.
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