Introduction
It was another exciting year for the Bray Hockey Club Juniors. We had teams playing in all age-groups and standards across the Leinster league. Our teams were extremely competitive and had a number of successes, with the U14 Boys and 6th Class Girls Division 4 team winning their leagues, the Inter 1 girls were Junior Jacqui Potter Plate Finalists and the 6th Class A and Minor 1 Girls reaching the final of theirs, only to lose out on Sudden Death 1v1’s. Our non-league age-groups competed in many friendly matches and blitzes throughout the season and did us proud. A great addition to the junior girls was the first U18 team, which will hopefully grow next year.
The junior section continues to be a huge organisational effort to keep running throughout the year. Our junior coordinators, managers, lead coaches, assistant coaches, umpires, junior coaching panel and Gaisce coaches ensured that our teams were able to train and compete on a weekly basis. The sheer amount of administration, a severe lack of pitch time and coaching shortages in certain areas did cause some concern throughout the season, but we hope to address these over the summer and in the coming season, through various initiatives as part of our Bray Hockey Club Junior Development Plan. Training, matches and blitzes were held across Loreto Bray, Temple Carrig School and a new introduction of St Gerards to accommodate all fixtures.
Membership
- 629 Junior Members (U18 or below).
- 87 Boys.
- 542 Girls.
- 286 U18 / U16 / U14 (Secondary School Age).
- 343 U12 (Primary School Age).
Junior Boys
- Leinster U18 Indoor Champions.
- Leinster U14B League Champions.
- Armagh U14 Super 8 Tournament Finalists.
- League Playoffs reached by U12 & U14C.
- Held 2 Primary School Age Blitzes in Bray.
- Attended many U10 & U8 blitzes and friendlies throughout the season.
Junior Girls
- 6th Class Girls x 5 Teams / 1st Year girls x 5 teams / Minors x 3 teams/ Inters x 4 teams/ U18 x 1 team
- 6th Class Div 4 League Winners
- Minor 1 Div 1A League Finalists
- Inter 1 Div Junior Jacqui Potter Plate Finalists
- U14 Girls Indoor Finalists
- League Playoffs reached by 6th Class x 3 teams), 1st Year x 3 teams.
- 166 matches played across all teams
- 8 x blitzes attended Junior groups - 1st class - 5th class
- 3 x home blitzes in Temple Carrig
- 5th Class girls participated in Portrane Tournament
- 6th Class girls participated in Railway mixed Tournament
Representative Hockey
We were proud to have many Bray players representing Leinster and even Ireland this season:
- Irish & Leinster U16 Boys - Dylan Evans.
- Leinster Boys U15 Academy - Albie Chance, Benjamin Strong, Alfie Kelly, Archie Mulligan, Fred Swaine, James Craig, Lewis McConnell, Max Doyle, Theodore Jahier-Roussillon.
- Leinster Girls U15 Academy - Grace Parker, Lisa McCarthy, Lucy McCleane, Grace Lambert, Beatrice Dattee, Sofia Folgar-Ferreiro, Emma Lewis, Robyn Weldon O’Malley, Thea Sterritt, Caitlin Park, Roisin Coughlan, Amelia Hanley, Aoibhe Nolan.
- Leinster Boys U18 Development Panel - Cormac Chance, Jared Allpass.
- Leinster Girls U18 Development Panel - Alison Plunkett, Indiana Gallanagh, Lily Moore, Olivia Gibson, Sophie Fitzsimons.
Challenges
We did encounter a number of challenges during the season including:
- Large amount of administration, currently landing on junior coordinators.
- Pitch space for both training and matches.
- Number of available coaches.
- Number of available umpires.
- Inflexible eligibility rules for Leinster Boys Hockey.
- Lack of interest in training from some groups.
- Equipment being misplaced (balls, strips & cones)
- League fixtures for some girls teams started very late in the season - players lost interest.
- Lack of commitment to travel for matches outside of county from some groups.
- Not enough parents stepping up as volunteers.
Development Plan
- We continued to focus on key initiatives as part of our junior development plan, including:
- Girls U18’s - Our first year submitting a team
- Indoor Hockey - Great for development, especially in the winter.
- Junior High Performance Training - Pilot programme which received very positive feedback and helped to lift the standard, particularly with high potential players.
- Junior Coaching Panel - Continues to grow and is now a crucial part of our coaching roster.
- Access to St Gerards pitches for matches on Sundays.
- Additional Training Sessions.
- Introduction to Boys Hockey.
- Continued Goalkeeper Development Training
- Coaches Education group - whatsapp
Season 24/25
- Our priorities for next season are:
- Junior Administrator role.
- Fill vacant coaching roles.
- Additional training sessions for priority teams.
- Additional pitch space for extra sessions.
- Goalkeeper recruitment and training.
- Skills clinics - e.g. Drag flicking, Goalkeeping.
- Partnerships with schools.
- Separate indoor programme (if we can find coaches to run it).
- Summer hockey for juniors.
Conclusion
It was another great season. We are now enjoying the break and look forward to another season of Junior Hockey at Bray starting in late August!
John Lush
Junior Boys Coordinator
Michelle Lambert
Junior Girls Coordinator.
