Dear Parents,

Apologies for the long post. Please take the time to read and understand the important information below. If you have any questions please ask.

Below is the list of upcoming Juvenile competitive events. Over the coming weeks this is what we will be preparing for. We will hold some training sessions over weekends for those looking to compete and we will try fit these in with the kids’ other sports. Keep an eye out as the weekend training sessions will be communicated by Friday of each week.

If your child is new to competitive Athletics, we suggest the Meath League and Championships. It is a good introduction and will give a flavour of competitive Athletics. However, as a competing club we are bound by the Meath Co Board to provide a minimum of 3 officials for each event. We will require parents to travel and also we need you parents to Volunteer as officials at these events. Don’t worry if you are not familiar with Athletics as no experience is necessary. You will be paired with an experienced official and it may be that you will be raking a sand pit, holding the dumb end of a tape or simple picking up a High Jump bar. It is best to try and leave the coaches to organise and prepare your little ones for the events on the day. This will help them perform to the best of their ability. Anything you can offer is appreciated and the Athletes will gain the benefits.

Relays!!! PARENTS PLEASE HELP

The relays cause all the arguments and like every year, we learned a little more from the previous year. It is going to be very simple and we will be holding trials. Note that the Meath Relays are on a Wednesday and the Leinster relays are on the following Saturday. Because of this we will not have time to have additional trials between them, so the same primary team for the Meath relays will be the same team we enter for Leinster.

For the Meath relays we will try and get everyone onto a team. This means that all will compete. We ask for your full commitment here. If you commit to part taking in the relays, please ensure that your child attends. If not, the end result can mean that 3 other kids do not get to run.

For the Leinster Relays, we will try and send an U/11 – U/14 boys and girls team if possible. There is a certain standard we need to meet and that is a qualification time. The trials will help us with this. We may end up moving some Athletes up in age in order to form a compliant  team. We will have one sub per team and the sub will only run in the event of an injury. We would like to point out that the sub is every bit as important as anyone else on the team. The sub will train and practice with the team and will always receive the same praise and silverware as the team.

We have already emailed you with these details as well as the rules of the Meath Championship Rules (see email dated April 21st). Here we’re highlighting just one very important rule: only competing athletes and officials will be allowed inside the arena. This is very important and we must follow it. If you are a parent, if you plan to attend on the night, please sign up as an official – this way you’ll get a close up look at the action, and the evening will fly!

Please click on the table below to enlarge it, and add the dates to your diary. If you have any questions please contact one of the coaches or our head juvenile coach, Keith Eglington. Thank you!