Better communication and support for the junior program has led to participation booming for New Town White Eagles.
The Southern club is our Club Changer Club of the Month for March, which celebrates clubs’ focus on participation.
NTWE president Ella Harrison said the club was thriving and had significantly grown junior numbers over the past three years.
“We had over 100 juniors last year and are projected to have the same this year,” she said.
“While we would love to have more, we want to ensure we have the resources to provide a quality experience.”
Increased and earlier communication with parents has led to a flurry of pre-season registrations.
“To attract more registrations, we are getting communications out early to parents and advertising where we can,” Ella said.
“We keep our registration costs affordable, provide our juniors with their own kits to take home, and make the process as easy as possible for parents.”
The club focused on retaining existing players by contacting those who had previously registered, then contacted local schools and used social media to spread the word – along with its existing families.
“Our biggest asset with participation has been word of mouth,” Ella said.
“Our fantastic parents have encouraged their children's friends and families join NTWE and we've been able to grow from there.”
Installing a junior coordinator and junior committee has helped communication with families run smoothly, as well as recruiting senior players to inspire and encourage the juniors, in preparation for the match days ahead.
“We believe we can provide a supportive and encouraging environment by having senior players interact with our juniors and act as their role models,” Ella said.
“We have found the juniors love being coached by an older player and it inspires them on game days to try their best.
“We are now shifting from training in two big groups, to training individual teams which helps the kids learn key skills and allows us to target teamwork, passing and familiarity amongst their teams.
“We believe this provides a great environment for the kids to develop as players, and to become used to their surroundings and teammates so they know exactly how their teammates play on game day.”