Another successful year for Carrick RFC Minis

Another monumental start of the season for Carrick RFC Minis. Building on a hugely successful Summer camp where our numbers swelled to 165 happy energetic kids – the largest summer camp in the country - we kicked off weekly training sessions in September. Registered numbers are 30% up on last season and last season was the highest minis numbers in the clubs history so we are building year on year!

Our age categories run from U7 through to U12 and is open to boys and girls. Children are travelling from a catchment area of up to 35 km to attend training and the enthusiasm week on week from both parents and kids is infectious. We have a trained and motivated coaching staff of 35 which again is a positive growth trajectory on the coaching numbers.

Our U10/11/12’s train on the Astroturf on Wednesday nights in addition to all age brackets training on Saturday mornings. So far this year we have played two full club away blitzes with Claremorris and Longford, all attended with great numbers  and all games played in the spirit of rugby with the core focus on fun, inclusion and personal development of pour players.

Our U9’s had a fantastic fun team building day after training one Saturday with a trip to Jump Street in Carrick.

Our U10 superstars attended the Connacht regional Aviva festival and hope to represent the club and Connacht at the nationals in the Aviva later in the season.

Our U11s recently formed an honour guard for our seniors first home match of the season which is another sign of the cross club cooperation between minis, youths and seniors – OneProudClub!!!!

Our U12s recently attended a U12 festival hosted by Galway Bay RFC where they competed with some of the biggest clubs in Connacht. The 12s also played honour guard and half time exhibition at the first home match of our newly formed U18.5 team. The 12s are eagerly looking forward to the rest of their season with several Connacht tournaments to be played and the pinnacle of their minis rugby path being a trip to a Tournament in North Wales over the Easter holidays – this will be the first foreign tour by Carrick RFC Minis so great excitement ahead!

At the start of December we hosted our first home blitz in three years playing host to Sligo RFC – this was a huge cross club logistical challenge but with great support from our fantastic parents and club mates we pulled off a fantastic memorable event. This part of the season was concluded with a very special visit by Santa at the pitch bringing lots of smiles and cheer to all our fabulous bunch of minis. We look forward to a short but well earned break and look forward to an action packed second half of the season! The future is bright at Carrick RFC Minis.