The purpose of this letter is to share the thoughts of the Head Coach with all parents and players, and serves as an open invitation for comments and feedback from everyone involved with the squad.

Ahead of a formal announcement by the Club Coaching Committee I am very pleased to inform you that I intend to remain with this squad in the role of Head Coach of U14s next season. It's my great pleasure and privilege to coach your boys and I hope to continue to receive your full support in this, along with the wonderful support of my fellow coaches, Tom, Andy and Dave and the outstanding Team Management of Ady.

You are an exceptional group of parents and as a parent myself, I fully appreciate the time and effort, the fun and the occasional heartache, involved in supporting the boys' rugby interests at Alton RFC, whatever their motivation. Watching them develop as players and as young people through this great team sport is a source of joy for me and I sincerely hope that they appreciate your dedication in providing this opportunity for them. I also hope that you are enjoying the fruits of their training via some wonderful performances in matches so far this year as an already successful season sees them preparing for a Hampshire Plate semi final at Havant RFC on 22^nd March and an exciting Easter tour to Dublin.

Coaching Philosophy
You'll know me as someone with a great passion for rugby and I've put a lot of time into the Club's Coaching Committee to ensure that our focus is on the development of players. With the primary emphasis on individual skills I hope to coach a consistently improving team performance and a sense of fair play. The opposition and referees are factors we can't control, but good performances should lead to good results without the need to instil a win-at-all-costs mentality.  As the boys mature they will take on an increasing amount of tactical awareness and game strategy, and the mental toughness to cope with the stresses of the physical competition.  I want to see the boys play well, to continue to play through to adulthood and to take life skills from their experiences in rugby.

Selection Policy
This season we have a Cup/Plate competition and lots of development or friendly matches which has enabled us to give everyone in the squad a good number of competitive games. In consultation with the coaching team I have selected on form for the Cup and Plate games just as we'd expect from our opposition.

This policy will continue at U14 when we will be placed in either Hampshire League 1 or 2 depending on our Cup/Plate performance at U13.  The league fixtures will see us put out the strongest team we can and the friendly fixtures will ensure all squad players have competitive games and the chance to develop. Competition for selection will be continuous and based on performance in both training and matches.

Many of the boys have already put on an early adolescent growth spurt and some will soon be towering over their coaches.  For others this growth spurt has yet to come and they're struggling with the physicality, strength and fitness gap that has opened up, their patience will be rewarded so persistence is vital.  I value skills over size.

Fitness is a selection criterion. Some of the squad are clearly struggling for fitness and there's only so much we can do in one or two training sessions per week. Fitness is a personal lifestyle choice and the boys will need to make good choices with guidance from parents, teachers and sports coaches alike.

I will be open and honest with the boys in selection matters and I will expect the same honesty and openness from them in return. Improvement starts with awareness, I will tell them what they need to work on and the coaching team will work on the development of all players equally, to give them all a chance to compete for places in the team for League matches.

Team Captain

This season, we invited all squad players to make a written application explaining in their own words what they thought captaincy meant and what they would bring to the role.  The coaching team assessed four applications, considered the strengths of each candidate and selected Joe Gwyther; I think Joe has made an excellent start, has learned a lot from it and the squad has responded well to his leadership both on and off the paddock.  It has been great to witness other potential leaders emerging through the season so this process will be repeated in September.

Hampshire and the EPDG

As mentioned above we will be placed in either League 1 or 2 at the outset of next season.  Due to its relative size Alton RFC junior sides tend to sit either towards the bottom of Hampshire 1 or the top of Hampshire 2 - currently Alton U14, U15 and U16 all play in Hampshire 2.  It should be our ambition to play competitively in Hampshire 1, to take on the better county sides regularly in order to improve our players individually and our team collectively. If we're unfortunate enough to find ourselves in Hampshire 2 next season, our ambition must be to win promotion so that we're playing Hampshire 1 rugby at U15.

Several of our players, perhaps far more than a club of our size would normally warrant, made the selection cut for the bronze group of the Elite Player Development Group, run by Tim Allen of the Hampshire RFU at Perin's School. Next season there will be county U14 places to fight for and I would hope that our squad will again punch well above its weight in pushing players for consideration within the EPDG and for county honours.  Initial selection for the EPDG is based on skills assessment so this is an excellent success indicator for both the quality of our coaching and our coaching philosophy.

With best wishes for the remainder of the season.