TOMASZ CHADWICK’S JUNIOR REPORT: No festive break for Active Youth

There’s no getting away from it.

I must say though it is nice to come into work every day and see Scarborough RUFC has its Christmas decorations up.

The Active Youth Scheme will be taking no breaks over Christmas, however I’m sure the children will be very happy with a little holiday time and lots of presents over the winter break.

One of the great things about running a youth set up at Scarborough RUFC is that now that the weather is starting to take a turn for the worse, we still have the facilities available to host indoor sessions for our younger children.

So we really can keep rugby going all year round regardless of external conditions.

Having said that we will always do our best to get our youth running outside and getting plenty of fresh air.

This week our mini’s (under-sixes to under-12s) will be at Malton playing teams from the hosts and from Beverley.

I had the pleasure of coaching the under-nines last week and it was lovely to see the passion they have for fixtures against other teams.

I had a lot of things I wanted to deliver in my session but the feedback I received throughout from the little ones seemed to just be “Can we play a game?” as well as the odd request of “Is it lunch time yet? (this being at 10:30am).

But as I said to the children at the start of the session, it’s my job to make sure they’re happy while they’re playing and training at the club and our coaches do a wonderful job in making sure this happens on a weekly basis.

This Sunday our under-14s will be making the short trip to Bridlington to fulfil another fixture with our old rivals.

Our team will be looking to pick up another win against this side and I have every confidence that they will do.

Our under-15s will be playing at home against a combined side from Guisborough and Redcar at 11am.

On Sunday our senior women’s team the Valkyries played against Workington Finches for their second competitive fixture.

In front of a supportive crowd the ladies put on a phenomenal display coming out winners with a massive 56-0 scoreline.

As I said to the ladies afterwards, they’ve come a long way since we were playing six-a-side games in July - a massive amount of progression in such a short space of time.

This result is just the tip of the iceberg though and I’m very confident that there is a lot more to come.

Above all, one thing that makes me excited with the success of our women’s side is that it’s paving the way for female rugby at Scarborough RUFC for all ages.

One thing’s for sure, we have a big year ahead!

Finally I’d like to finish by sharing some of my thoughts for this week.

Every Christmas, I wake up and walk to mass in the morning.

The people you pass smile and wave, greet you, ask how your day’s going. I’ve never understood why this can’t be the case all year around.

This isn’t a recent phenomenon. Look back to 1914. A world war had been raging for several months, but on Christmas, on this one day, there was a truce.

At one of the darkest points in documented history, people were able to set aside differences and treat each other with equal levels of respect and appreciation.

I think a lot of this is down to mentality.

The wonderful thing about human life is that we act on instinct, act on emotion. It’s what living is all about.

But at times this can also be the route of our problems. We get frustrated at our jobs, at failure and at little issues that realistically don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

But this is where perspective can aid us. A strong mindset and positive outlook on life can take over when these little things nag at us.

Coaching the youth of this area, I feel the need to remind the players that losing is a part of sport.

It’s inevitable. It will happen at times but it’s okay. What’s important is they maintain a positive outlook and continue to enjoy the journey as it happens.

That’s why rugby really is at the forefront of sportsmanship.

All teams regardless of age will always shake hands, clap each other off and leave the pitch together.

Every cloud has a silver lining is a little cliché but give it a go this week.

Even when the worst happens, think about what good may come from it.

You never know. Sure, things will upset us, but no matter how upset we get, we’re always in control of.