COACHES BRIEFING, 1st August 2008

1. The online registration page is now active, so I would suggest to contact your players from last season to get them signed up. The link is: http://www.valleyfort.com/Pages/registration.htm. Kim Murphy will no doubt give you your updated team lists of those who have registered - hopefully before the start of training.
2. Please try to get your official coaching team together as soon as possible. We are trying to get as many of the coaches onto Union coaching courses, so if we can get as many of the guys onto the courses as possible, it would be beneficial. Once you have the coaching team identified, let Elisabetta (elisabettaharper@hotmail.com) have their contact details and their photograph on the team webpages.
3. Similarly, can you please provide a "report" to Elisabetta every week (by Tuesday?). Accompany this with some action shots if you can. By animating the website, we can get more and more people using it - it is our main channel of communication, and we will endeavour to get as much information onto the site.
4. Coaching plan - as previously advised, can you put a coaching plan together for the first half (or all) of the season. Not really applicable to the younger kids of course! I would ask that this be submitted to Hugh (Head of Coaching).
5. We will have as many balls as you will need (average of one per player), so please keep these in your team bags, and PLEASE ensure that we keep the area neat and tidy. Let myself or Nick/David Owens know of any any additional requirements and we will try to accomodate your needs within reason.
6. The first day of training is Sunday 31st August (both Colts and minis). Start time for minis will be 10 o'clock at the Fort. The colts will start at 13:30 at Happy Valley. All details are on the training calendar on the website.
7. Kit distribution will be over the following 2 Sundays. On 7th September we will do the U5 - U7 teams. For that Sunday, we require help from the U8 - U12 parents. For Sunday 14th September, we will do the U8 - U12 teams. For that Sunday, we require help from the U5 - U7 parents.
8. Our kit is again reversible this year - and happily there is greater contrast than last year. Red on one side, white on the other! What did you expect from a guy from Sunderland ???!!!
9. For the younger children, we will provide loose fit shirts (again reversible) and we will ask all parents to have the child's name on the back of the shirt (there is a special panel on the shirt to do so). This year, we are supporting the "Make a Wish" campaign, which provides holidays for families with terminally ill children. During kit distribution days, a young lady representing Make a Wish will be selling "iron on letters". This is purely optional for parents to purchase - otherwise you can write the name on the shirt. Older kids can have it too if you want!
10. From U9 teams upwards, we will be touring to Singapore. We will need to distribute the form to parents as soon as possible - the deadline for payment to the travel agent is 26th September (not long). So we will need to go very quickly indeed. Click HERE to download the form for distribution to your team members. I repeat.... only U9 and upwards will be going! The procedure is...... parents deal with the travel agency directly, and inform the Head Coach that their son/daughter will be going. You can then tell me your squads. More information will follow on Singapore in the weeks to come - but squads must not be more than 14 per team (you can have more than one team) and kids MUST play in the correct age groups.
11. Please ensure that ALL children who are playing out of their "normal" age groups have completed a "Play Up/Down" form. This is really important for insurance purposes. The ONLY criteria for playing out of age group is safety. The Director of Mini/Colts will have the final say on whether a child will be allowed to play up/down. Please also tell parents that kids who do play out of age group may not be allowed to play in festivals/
12. Festivals are posted on the Calendar on the website
13. I will inform you of the status of Bledisloe Cup tickets seperately. All those that have applied have tickets (category yet to be fixed). As additional information, you may tell your team members that tickets are also on general sale at:  http://www.hkticketing.com/eng/