Kilbarchan AAC Newsletter – March/April 2022
Presidents’ Chat
Hello and welcome to our March/April newsletter. It’s been a busy time through the winter and after a few weeks we’ll be into the summer season. For members I hope training has been going well. If there’s been injury or setbacks I wish you a strong recovery.
My own goals this spring are to work on the Track Stars and help it go through some changes to bolster the coaching staff and provide continuing development.
You may have read on the club web site the death of one of our past members Paul Mayles who was living in Asia at the time. Pauls’ parents have proposed to award an annual grant of £100 for the next ten years for an under 15 endurance athlete. The trustees have confirmed support on this and have decided to double the award to £200. This would be awarded each year to an athlete at the discretion of the club trustees.
More news on the winner of this award in the next edition.
Best wishes, Jason Pender, Club President
Club Cross Country Championship Results 12 March 2022
For those that supported the club championships at Shanks Park in Johnstone many thanks for your support. For athletes and volunteers it was a pretty cool and wet day at times. It was great to see everyone finish and the first three is each age group received a medal.
Full results and photos on the club web site here https://kilbarchanaac.org.uk/2022/03/kilbarchan-aac-club-cross-country-championship-results-12-march-2022/
Club Website News and Results
It would be great if anyone who was at the event drop me a couple of paragraphs and perhaps some pictures to publish in the next newsletter or on the club web site. Results and news can be found on our club website here https://kilbarchanaac.org.uk/news/
Just some results you may have missed over the last month or two
British Athletics Championships (i), Birmingham, 26/27 Feb 2022
Silver medal for Jemma Reekie in the womens’ 800m with a time of 2:08.52; and Bronze for Howard Bell in the Heptathlon, congratulations to both athletes.
Lindsay’s Scottishathletics Cross Country Championships, Falkirk, Sat 26 Feb 2022
Under 15 boys silver – Oliver Patton
Pre-match DNA International (i), Emirates Glasgow, Sun 05 Feb 2022
Congratulations to Jack Patton claiming a Scottish U20 1500m indoor Record, Jack finished third in a time of 3:46.79.
Track Stars Group
The Monday Wednesday group is still looking for a lead coach. We’ve had a good response with volunteers coming forward and those interested in coaching or being mentored into coaching roles but we still need a lead coach to lead the group overall. We are working on potential solutions but if parents / members are interested in helping in this area here are some roles you might be interested in:
Coach roles – You might have no experience but if you are willing to coach one or two days on a regular basis the club will provide coach mentoring and work towards sending you on formal coach development courses. Persons in these roles will be subject to Disclosure check for child protection purposes.
Volunteer coach assistants – typically school pupils looking to do their Duke of Edinburgh Awards in coaching or keen parents looking to give something back to the community. These roles will support the coaches in delivering athletics training sessions.
Track Stars Admin Support – if you are a parent or adult club member, we’re looking for someone in the background to take register, set up the Class4Kids camps for each training block, deal with parent queries. Training will be provided. Person in this role will be subject to Disclosure check for child protection and security purposes.
If you are interested, please drop jasonpender64@outlook.com an email with what you’d like to pursue.
Coaching Vacancies
There is always a need for coaches across the club this includes road running. If you want to support or shadow existing coaches this might be a route to yourself becoming a club coach. Once the club sees you are committed to regular nights we will pay for coaching qualifications. An idea of coaching courses is available on the Scottish Athletics website:
https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/coaches/qualifications/
If you are interested, please drop jasonpender64@outlook.com an email with what you’d like to pursue.
Scottish Athletics Events Calendar
The summer calendar includes the Youth Development League for under 13 and under 15 age groups and the Scottish Joint League for under 17 and senior athletes. Some senior athletes may also have registered themselves for a British League club such as the Scottish composite team Jaguars or an English club.
The club team managers may ask for you to confirm your availability. Please make yourself available for selection if possible.
At the league events we may ask some parents to help out as volunteer officials. The tasks might be rake a sand pit, hold a measuring take, bring back a thrown javelin. Without such volunteer roles the club lose points and the meetings struggle to run smoothly. Thanks for your help in advance for this.
Full details of events organised by our governing body can be found on the Scottish Athletics web site under EVENT
Some events coming up
| Date | Event Name | Venue | Type | Entry | Closing Date | Cost |
| Sat 16 Apr 2022 | Scottishathletics Jumps & Throws Grand Prix 1 | Inverness Sports Centre, Inverness | Track and Field | Own | 31/03/22 | |
| Sat 23 Apr 2022 | Highland Fling Race | MIlngavie – Tyndrum, Milngavie | TR | Own | Sold Out | |
| Sun 24 Apr 2022 | Joint League Meeting 1 | Grangemouth Sports Stadium | Track and Field | Club | ||
| Wed 27 Apr 2022 | Dunfermline Track & Field April Open Graded | Pitreavie Athletics Centre | Track and Field | Own | ||
| Fri 29 Apr 2022 | GAA 10,000m races | Crownpoint Glasgow | Track and Field | Own | ||
| Sun 1 May 2022 | Youth Development League Division 2 | Grangemouth Sports Stadium | Track and Field | Club(C4K) | N/A | |
| Thu 5 May 2022 | Babcock Helensburgh 10K 1 | Hermitage Academy, Helensburgh | RR | Own | ||
| Sat 14 May 2022 | 4J Studios scottishathletics West District Track and Field Championships 1 | Kilmarnock | Track and Field | Own | 28/04/22 | |
| Sat 14 May 2022 | 4J Studios scottishathletics National Open – Kilmarnock 1 | KIlmarnock | Track and Field | Own | 28/04/22 | |
| Fri 20 May | Monument Mile Races | Stirling University Track | Track and Field | Own | Sold out | £12.00 |
| Su 22nd May | YDL (League) | Kilmarnock | Track and Field | Club | N/A | N/A |
| Fri 27 May 2022 | GAA Sprints Gala | Crownpoint Glasgow | Track and Field | Own | ||
| Sun 29 May 2022 | Joint League Meeting 1 | Grangemouth Sports Stadium | Track and Field | Club |
Club Kit and Vests
Donna Matthews holds our club kit and can meet and greet you most Thursdays 7pm to 7.30pm at the track in the portakabin.
Further details on the club website including contact details https://kilbarchanaac.org.uk/kit/
Press Reports
The club has a presence in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, club web site and circulate press reports to the local press (Paisley Daily Express). If you have a paragraph of news you wish to share please send it to the following people and we’ll try and put it out on the social media:
kilbarchan.web@gmail.com, kilbarchanaacsecretary@outlook.com, johngrodger@outlook.com, jasonpender64@outlook.com, callummatthews63@gmail.com
We are still looking for anyone interested in being the club press officer to coordinate information to the social media outputs. If you are interested in this volunteer role please contact jasonpender64@outlook.com .
Facilities
The club trains at ON-X Sports centre. If you pay your £20 membership you can use the track any time. Just ask the sports centre to open and close the gates. However, please drop myself a note by email to state you are using it in case the sports centre asks or if perhaps the track has been booked exclusively at that time. My email is jasonpender64@outlook.com. Please give me at least 24 hours’ notice to respond as I work full time.
The indoor track can be booked through Rupert Williams our club business development officer at the following email address Bookings-KilbarchanAAC@outlook.com . Priority is given to group rather than individual bookings to make best use of the facility. It’s key that you stick to your booking times to avoid other groups overlapping on facilities. Please always clean any equipment after use and put it back where you got it. If there is any damage to equipment please report it to the same email so we can get it fixed.