This autumn has been filled with on-court and off-court activities for our mini and junior players. The season got underway in September and our youngsters were back in the sports hall after the summer holidays with lots of energy to play handball again.
Some of our older juniors and some parents took part in a club-run ‘Activator Workshop’ where they learned how to lead handball sessions and got an in-depth understanding of the rules of the game.
Also in September, the Vikings took to the beach and joined the Great British Beach Clean at St Mary’s Lighthouse local nature reserve in Whitley Bay. Again, both parents and juniors got stuck in and did a great job in helping with cleaning up this beautiful part of North East England’s coastline.
We had a good number of parents joining us for ‘Parents in Sports Week’ back in October. The aim for this was to raise awareness of all the good work parents do by driving children to and from training, supporting them in matches and generally contributing to the positive atmosphere of the club. We invited all parents to join us in our training session for them to get a better understanding of handball and have fun together with their children and their Viking friends. At the end of the session, all parents received a ‘thank you’ certificate as a token of the club’s appreciation for all they do.
Colours and lots of fun was on the menu in November when we supported ‘Children in Need’ by running fun dressing up and bring your teddy sessions. The minis and juniors took part in lots of races across the age range including ‘balance your teddy on your head’, ‘race with the duck’, ‘score a goal against Pudsey’ and ‘drawing spots on Pudsey’s eye patch’. We raised a great total of £95.30 and the winner of the duck race was ‘Beakwell Tart’. Well done Ruby for picking that one! And a big thank you to everyone who donated towards this great cause.
In mid-November at Benfield Sports Centre our minis and junior players from both our Temple Park and Benfield training groups, along with a mini team from Gosforth, took to the handball court and played their first matches of the season. There were lots of goals, smiles, sweat and cheering from both players and parents. What a fun and energetic day!
In the final training sessions for our minis and juniors this term we welcomed the festive season with Christmas music blasting out while playing fun games wearing our Santa hats. Our young Viking players have impressed us in all training sessions and events we have hosted. We look forward to seeing their happy faces back in the New Year for lots more handball fun!
