Warrington Town Junior Netball club has been established as an inclusive and progressive club, nurturing girls of all levels of ability. We operate two sides of the club. The development teams and the performance pathway.
Depending on what age girls join our club, the players and parents (between school Years 1 – 6) can expect to experience playing a variety of different positions and relative equality in game time depending on the make-up of the squad.
Squads usually operate 12 players, some more and some less which is at the coach's discretion. Once a squad is created it is not to say that the squad will stay the same over time. Squads may also experience a change of coach or venue depending on the bigger picture at the club. Nothing is set in stone and all aspects of the team – players, coach and venue may change.
Of course, we try and create stability and continuity within squads but occasionally squads may change. If we feel there is room at a facility, we will allow additional players to join as ‘training partners’ initially until it is practical to set up another squad. This depends on training facility space and also whether additional coaches are available.
At the end of Year 6, the club will hold trials for a U12 Performance Squad to join our Performance Pathway. This is open to any netballers from our Year 6 squad but is also open to girls from other clubs who may want to play at a more competitive level. If certain players from our Year 6 development squad are successful in being chosen for this squad, then obviously this will alter the make-up of their current team. That needs to be considered when choosing whether to trial. The Performance side of the club trains on a Thursday night, so that is another consideration. There is regular dialogue between development and performance coaches and players are able to move between the two sections of the club if the coaches feel this is appropriate for a particular player.
The Performance Teams enter leagues such as the CJNL (Cheshire Junior Netball League) and the Bury netball league plus various other competitions like the Sisters n Sport Cup and the ENG League. All these leagues and competitions require commitment to travel from parents.
As girls progress through the Performance Pathway both parents and players need to understand that ‘game time’ is not guaranteed. As competition become more strenuous and the intensity increases on the players, coaches will make their team selection based on being able to bring on ‘fresh legs’ to benefit the overall performance of the team. This also needs explaining to our players and by accepting a place on our performance pathway, you are accepting that this is how squads will operate.
Finally, both our development and performance teams then feed into our Senior’s section and the players join this after U16 level. They can continue their journey here with Warrington or look to play adult netball in some of the local social leagues.
I’m hoping this explanation of the structure of the club and the pathway that is available to players should they wish to pursue it is clear. I hope by being transparent and by explaining this to our players this will elevate any uncertainty and that our communication is clear between all parties involved.
