Brooklands Hulmeians Lacrosse Club
Brooklands Hulmeians Lacrosse Club
Brooklands Lacrosse Club (based in Sale, south Manchester) already supported junior coaching via an existing schools programme – but wanted to deliver lacrosse to a new & younger age group (in Years 3 & 4), and improve the Club’s links with nearby primary schools.
In 2020, they requested £5300 from TLF to provide free coaching and junior equipment, to enable the introduction of lacrosse to girls and boys of all abilities. The approved grant was used to purchase 50 Mini Warp sticks, and to provide 120 hours of coaching in the schools, as well as the costs of publicity to promote the project (i.e. gym bags & flyers). [NB. The club also funded 10 coaching courses to develop their existing young players to become coaches].
Additional TLF funding in 2021 was also provided to extend the coaching into more primary schools.
Although Covid inevitably impacted the delivery of the project, during 2021 Brooklands has been able to:
Deliver 184 hours of coaching into 11 local primary schools;
Enable 860 Y3 +Y4 kids to get a taster of the game of lacrosse for the first time;
Host 37 ‘new’ boys and 28 ‘new’ girls at the Club’s half-term camps;
Run ‘beginners’ sessions with 8 regular attendees, who are now playing members at the club.
Update: And in January 2022, this Brooklands U10’s side (see photo) took part in the Junior and Schools North U10 Development Tournament at Cheadle LC. All the players on this team have come from the schools where the club has provided coaching to Year 3 and 4 pupils - funded by The Lacrosse Foundation grant.
It is great to see this schools development programme bearing fruit, recognising the commitment shown by the volunteers at the club who have supported their junior programme.
Shout out to: Rick Summers (Junior Dev Manager), Ryan Sweetman (Juniors coach), Alison Cara (Publicity & Comms)
Brooklands LC’s juniors programme aims to provide an immediate pathway from the schools to the club. They play at a multi-sports club, and within their local [Trafford MBC] area, there are professional cricket, football & rugby union teams – all of which are supported by paid development officers who go into schools free of charge, and provide a strong attraction to children to watch and play. Lacrosse is therefore at a ‘funding’ disadvantage, and whilst there is some awareness of the sport, it does not have the profile of these others. To meet this challenge, they are targeting this younger age group, and following up by encouraging the parents (along with their children) to come and see what the Club has to offer by running school tournaments and free coaching sessions. Running girls and boy’s programmes means more families get involved, with parents taking the opportunity to try lacrosse and other sports available at the Club (squash, cricket, bowls, hockey and tennis).