TOMASZ CHADWICK: Fitting award for stalwart Steve

Our minis chairman Nick Ingham said: “Steve has been involved with Scarborough’s mini set-up for over 22 years, throughout which he has shown endless enthusiasm and drive to develop our minis set up.

“As head coach of the under-sixes,under-sevens and under-eights he has overall responsibility for these teams as well as casting a watchful eye on the other minis.

“He has a natural coaching style that our young players love and when asked for tips on coaching by other coaches, Steve is famed for saying ‘send them home with muddy knees and a smile on their faces and you won’t go wrong’

“This mantra, while not found in any textbook has been key to his success.

“In more recent years Steve has been responsible for coach recruitment from the under-six parents.

“He has a keen eye for spotting potential coaches among new parents and has a remarkable ability of turning them into coaches before they realise that they’ve even volunteered.

“Steve should be proud of the current minis coaching set-up of which nearly every coach is a parent that Steve has recruited, developed and moulded into a coach like himself, enthusiastic, dynamic and likeable.

“Our current first-team is littered with players that have started at the club as minis and have come up through the junior age grades, yet another testament to his success.

“Steve, it might not be said regularly but from all at Scarborough Rugby Club we’d like to say thank you for all that you do.

“You have changed the lives of hundreds of young people in the last 22 years and we look forward to the next 22 years where you’ll undoubtedly change many more.”

Steve, thank you for your unwavering and phenomenal contribution to the club and to all associated with it.

We all look forward to working with you for many years to come.

On Sunday our under-13s picked up a fantastic win away at Guisborough despite playing with fewer players.

Man of the match was split between Joel Buckle and Kirby Beal, with Buckle scoring three tries alone.

Jacob Burton also scored and kicked three conversions before Ivan Septien went over for the match-winning try.

The final score was 31-26 to Scarborough.

Coach Paul Mathers was incredibly pleased with the side’s performance and heaped lots of praise on new player Max Teasdale, who had a fantastic debut for the side.

Our under-13s will be looking to record back-to-back wins next weekend with a derby against local rivals Malton.

Sunday also saw our junior girls sides travel to Selby to play in an East Yorkshire tournament and both sides played very well.

It’s clear that the sides are very much in their development stages as so many of the players are new to the sport.

But tournaments like these show how quickly our junior girls are progressing, as they continue to keep on winning as many matches as they’re losing.

I’m confident following this season there will be plenty of success to come from these sides and we’re all excited about how far they can go.

Being Easter, there is limited rugby activity for our youth sections this weekend, with our minis taking a well-earned break.

We will however be hosting a touring party from Eindhoven, during which we will be playing fixtures from under-13 all the way through to under-16.

These matches will take place on Saturday from 2pm.