Thank you for completing the U13-U15 Grrrls Rugby Survey, as parent or player. We had 7 responses!

Dear Rugby Community,

To try to get a better understanding of the coach’s perspective of the game, and just to have fun teaching young players about rugby, I have committed to coaching the U15 girls in Edmonton for the 2011 season.

I don’t care what anyone says, coaching is definitely harder than refereeing!! Seriously! How to organize bodies in one place at one time? What drills to use to effectively teach players a certain skill? Arranging players to positions, having to run drills without a group of 10 players… keeping them sportsmanlike (not actually a problem), bringing out healthy aggression without it turning all “Lord of the Flies”. Needing more time to teach scrum, tackle, rucking; but then we need more on the lineout, and maul, and spreading out to cover the field space… and then more passing and positions, and communication. And we must remember to teach the young players HOW to take a tackle. I admit, I am exhausted! There were amazing moments, moments of WOW!, moments of “I am sorry”, and moments of “know where there is definite room for improvement”! I sure appreciate coaches more, and I also appreciate refereeing from the coach and player position more, from this very memorable experience.

This year has proven to be a very successful season, with almost 40 participants in the U13-U15 combined programme – this is up from about 12 last season. Incredible! The success was in part to all the people who were able to commit to the girls’ sides, the focused recruitment, and the flexibility and eagerness of the players and their families. Administrators and coaches had a tonne of fun, working together in concert and in competition, and being creative with the ingredients we had depending on the day! Moving from coaching strictly the NWAA team to the barbarian Edmonton team in general; moving practices from NWAA (so conveniently located for many players!) to Rockers (such a great opportunity to practice along side the women!), and back again; driving 2 and 3 hours for competition; gaining girls and losing girls weekly, the programme was still a success – and we can build on what we have learned and from critical feedback from players and their parents.

I am not sure if I am more sad that our last game set was rained out, that I was out of the country for the last competition at the Druids – or that we didn’t have a year end party. All of the girls were very sportsmanlike, and supportive of each other. I cannot tell you what a great opportunity this was. Thanks so much, Kim Groome