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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 22/05/2009 10:43:05
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| I coach my local clubs under 9's team who will be going up to under 10's next season. We will be required to play 10 a side which is going to be a problem as we don't have enough players. I plan on holding a recruitment evening in July and will advertise this in the local paper, on posters and flyers in local schools beforehand. We did put flyers into some schools last year which proved unsuccesful but I can't think of anything else to do at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can attract the extra players we need? Many Thanks
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Supreme Being
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on the recruitment day get all your CURRENT players to come along and trell them/ask them to BRING A FRIEND!
Its a big call and probably not 100% successful but ... bingo... you have doubled your numbers immediately!
didds
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Supreme Being
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Last Login: 29/04/2012 20:13:09
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| Two years ago, all the teams in our mini age group put flyers in all the local primary schools. We allocated four schools to each coach and he rang up the head and asked permission to put in the flyers. A number of heads said this was a good idea and then advertised the fact at their assemblies. The personal contact with school made a difference. There were several phones numbers on the flyer for different age groups since some parents are unsure of when the cut off dates are of U9, U10 etc. I would agree with Didds about bring a friend as well. Anyway, we have been so successful at recruitment that we have been turning players away, or in one case, the age group split into two teams. I would put this down to persistence, and just getting on the phone. There is a piece on retaining players coming up in this month's International Rugby Technical Journal by Norm Mottram, the US Coach Education manager and a piece in Rugby Coach Weekly by Mark Calverley a Level 4 coach who works in schools and clubs on introducing new players, and also young players.
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 22/05/2009 10:43:05
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| Thanks for the reply guys, wish it was just as easy as asking players to bring along a friend. Unfortunately most of the players come from the same small class in school so their friends are already there. May be possible to get the other couple of players to do so though. As I mentioned I put flyers into schools last season and it proved very succesful for our under 8's where we had 20+ players turn up. For some reason it only produced 1 player for the under 9s who was never seen again. Hopefully approaching more schools will be beneficial but I am sceptical. I think we may have missed the boat as no recruitment was done the year before and players have either gone to other clubs or to other sports. I was hoping that people may have some different ideas that I hadn't thought of. Thanks again
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Supreme Being
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| Don't give up on the flyers and schools. Players drift in and out of other sports all the time. The Lions tour will generate more rugby interest. And as you have identified, it just takes one person from a class to start the ball rolling. Good luck.
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 18/04/2011 22:57:27
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| The key factor is to make sure that any new players have the best fun possible when they turn up it is certainly the key to retention and the incentive to bring more friends. You could ask the local schools to put up a 7 aside team for a small local schools touch rugby festival and make sure there are side show events like kicking competitions or passing through the target or hit the tackle bag. All it takes is one or two new recruits to start the ball rolling in another class or school. Good Luck!
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Forum Member
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| Different way of approaching this is to contact your local Sports development officers, each county/ area should have them. They are meant to work in schools both primary and secondary to introduce different sports. Your local council should have contact numbers for these Development officers, they can be very helpful. Alternatively, if you have a local school that is designated sports college (secondary school), they will have contact numbers for development officers. Or Most primary schools not actually teach rugby in schools, if you have time/ manpower etc. Offer the local schools to go in an do taster sessions during school time/ after school. Get the students hooked and advertise your local club. This does take commitment and time & organisation (CRB checks etc, but you should have a RFU one, schools may except this), but it is well worth it. Your club could organise local schools tournaments at your club, this is especially good if you have been in schools coaching, natural progression
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 22/05/2009 10:43:05
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| We have used local development officer to help with flyers in schools in the past, makes it easier to get a foot in the door. I like the idea of doing some taster sessions in local schools, as you mentioned some schools don't teach rugby at all. Will definately look into this as it could be a great way of getting kids who aren't currently playing interested in the game. Thanks Again
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