During term 1 this year Middlemount Junior Touch ran the AusTouch course. We started with 42 keen participants and finished with 40. We lost two kids because the older brother was going to play league and as they live over 60 kilometres from town Mum found a sport for the little sister to do on the same day! We were thrilled by the interest shown by the kids registered. As I have been involved in junior sport before in Middlemount and seen the drop off rate, this was amazing. We ran three groups; 5-7 year olds, 8–10 year olds and 11-14 year olds.
We didn’t have any problems with setting up the course even though we are a long way from Brisbane and the Game Development Officer was unable come out to visit. The resources are excellent and we found them to be very easy to follow from an administration point of view. Being able to see exactly how to do the activities on the DVD makes the implementation of the session very simple. The session guides are well written and also very easy to follow.
We had six volunteer leaders, three really experienced touch players, one with some touch experience and two had never played before. The two non-playing leaders had to ask occasionally for clarification of what outcome we were seeking in an activity. This was only because of their lack of touch experience. We found that we had to modify the 5-7 year olds activities a little. We found that the target group for AusTouch, the 8 – 18 years age group were ideal and they respond really well to the program.
At our presentation on Wednesday the kids showed us just how far they had come with a hard and fast game of touch, which delighted the parents. The participants were thrilled to receive their packs and certificate and enjoyed a sausage sizzle and ice block afterwards. I was approached by most of the parents, who congratulated me on the course and told me how their kids were so keen from week to week.
We will be having a break for the next term and then look at running a junior competition in Term 3. As with all organisations we can only run when our volunteers are available. I also had offers from parents that if we need a hand that they would be able to help out. I think this is a direct result of a well produced and professional program being offered. This offsets one on the main problems in regional areas that even if the kids are keen, a lack of volunteers can prevent any sport from starting. Many parents were impressed by the uniforms and commented on how great the shirts and hats looked. Many actually said that “we looked like we knew what we were doing even if we didn’t know what we were doing!”
Angela Hite
Middlemount AusTouch Centre
