U8 Blitz Sunday 11th September

The postponed U8 Blitz from the 14th August will now take place on Sunday 11th September. This will be the final U8 event of this year. My sincere thanks

to all clubs who hosted these blitzs. I know the hard work that is involved in hosting 20 teams.

Our U8 & U10 set-up is the envy of all county’s in Ulster & beyond – it is purely down to the hard work & dedication of all our clubs.

THANK YOU.

See below for details on the North Antrim U10 Championship (the format & venue were decided by all attending clubs

and the draw was witnessed by all those in attendance)

Venue = Glen Rovers Armoy

Date = 24th September

U10 Championship (Combined Divs 1 & 2)

Pool 1                                  Pool 2

St Endas                                Loughguile

Ballycastle                              Oisin

Glenravel                                Dunloy

Cushendall                             Naomh Padraig

Matches will commence at 10:00. Games will be 7 mins each way with 2 min 1/2 time break. The final will be played 10 mins each way.

Top of Pool 1 will play 2nd in Pool 2 in the semi final of Div 1

Top of Pool 2 will play 2nd in Pool 1 in the semi final of Div 1

3rd in Pool 1 will play 4th in Pool 2 in the semi final of Div 2

3rd in Pool 2 will play 4th in Pool 1 in the semi final of Div 2

Division 3

Pool 1                    Pool 2

Dunloy                    All Saints

St Endas                 Glenarm

Ballycastle              Oisin

Cushendall             Naomh Padraig

Loughguile

Matches will commence at 10:00. Games will be 7 mins each way with 2 min 1/2 time break. The final will be played 10 mins each way.

Top of Pool 1 will play 2nd in Pool 2 in the semi final of Div 3

Top of Pool 2 will play 2nd in Pool 1 in the other semi final

NORTH ANTRIM DEV SQUADS (U10 & U11) Trip to Naas.

Our U10 & U11 squads have been invited to Naas to take part in a blitz on the 17th September. More details will be sent out & published on the North Antrim Web page prior to the event.

A North Antrim Youth Development will take place Thursday 29th September @ 8:00 in Loughguile. Could all clubs please send at the very least 1 representative to this – ideally we would like to get the coaches from every club who coach from U8 – U14 to this meeting to get their views.

Clar:

Indoor Airborne

In 2015 we ran U12 & U14 Indoor Airborne Competitions. We had 3 days for each age group.

Do clubs want the same for this year or change this?

How is this going to be paid?

North Antrim Development Squads

The format of these squads are as follows:

The 5 largest clubs in North Antrim (Cushendall, Loughguile, Ballycastle, Oisin & Dunloy) get to send 4 players to each age group (U10/11/12 & 13)

The remaining clubs get to send 2 players to these squads. It is entirely up to the clubs who they send – they do not have to send the same players each year.

We also do not ask the clubs to send their best hurlers – the lads they send should be goods lads who want to be involved & who will go to every session.

The clubs should look at these squads as a reward for their hurlers for exceptional attitudes, training hard & always giving of their best.

The training sessions are for the coaches as much as the players. Each club will have 2 players involved – the coaches should go with these players where they can,

see the type of training (& give a helping hand). They can then use the drills etc from the NA sessions in their club sessions & they will have the benefit of having

2 hurlers who can demonstrate the drills. We are genuinely lucky in North Antrim as our best club coaches are involved in the development squads & the training the

squads have received over the 2 years have been exceptional. I think it was clear for all to see in the Festival of Hurling this year – our lads are competing with &

beating the best teams in Ireland.

Some points for discussion at the meeting:

These have been operational for 3 years now – are they working?

Can we improve on the format etc?

Are all clubs sending players – problem last year that players who had been chosen were not turning up?

Coaches for next year?

When do we start? Are we going to do the same as last year in that we trained once every month over the winter (concentrating on speed & flexibility)?

Games throughout the year.

North Antrim Festival of Hurling

Is everyone happy how this went – any suggestions to improve it for next year?

Are we happy to run the event next year?

We subsidised visiting teams £10 per player for this past 2 years as an incentive to get the clubs to travel. I think the blitz is reasonably well established & teams will travel without us paying £10 –      what do you think?

Teams to be invited for next year?

Committee to be set up to deal with the following:

–       Accommodation for visiting teams

• Fixtures
• Referees
• Send out invites & liaise with teams to ensure they are definitely participating.

–    Event program.

–    Media coverage.