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On Tuesday, the first participants got their chance to experience Saints’ Summer Camps.

Louise Gaul from Saintsrlfc.com was on hand to get stuck in…

It was 10:00am and the group of twenty or so youngsters were met and greeted by Matt Daniels, the club’s Community Development Manager. Matt set the scene of day by explaining the structure of the activities taking place and got the team ready and motivated to get active.

Firstly, the group was split into two as they were to be taking part in alternate activities simultaneously in order to complete as much as possible in the short time before lunch. Group One was sent outside to enjoy some agility exercises and Group Two went to the gym to do the Saints Challenge – a series of fitness skills such as push ups and sit ups within a minute to test personal ability.

The agility session on the front pitch was lead by former Saints player Tim Jonkers and Community Coach Glen Swift. This session involved lots of high energy exercises that helped to improve various rugby skills such as side-stepping, passing techniques and tackling. It really gave those involved a good work out.

One parent said: “It’s good to be able to watch them running about instead of being indoors on the PlayStation all day. I enjoy watching my son have fun and it’s good to know that he’s getting exercise and learning at the same time.”

Meanwhile, the other group were in the gym taking part in the Saints Challenge. This session was lead by two other Community Coaches, Karl Edwards and Adam Daniels. This was a really fun exercise which tested the group to the maximum as they moved from one section of the gym to another to complete the next challenge in the series. Such a feeling of achievement showered the group after this session, as some of the challenges really were tough!

The next activity was one which the entire group was looking forward to, and as the coaches lead the groups from the gym and from the pitch everyone was discussing it.

First teamer Mike Bennett joined the group for a Question & Answer session. There were lots of questions asked and Mike was pleased to answer them all.

Questions ranged from: “How many finals have you played in?” to: “Who do you think is the biggest joker on the team?” to which Bennett replied: “Easy, Foz!” When the group had asked all their questions there was the opportunity to get Bennett’s autograph and have their picture taken with him.

Everyone in the group had something for him to sign and some of the parents proudly took pictures of their child shaking his hand. Before he left, Mike had one more job to do. He assisted Tim Jonkers with the presentation of congratulatory certificates and medals for the group upon completing the most physical half of the day.

In the second half, the group were given a tour of the stadium. It started with a gallery tour of the trophy cabinet which also involved a brief history of the tournaments that were won in order to claim all the trophies. It was also a good chance to answer more questions from the awe inspired group.

From here the coaches took the tour to the changing rooms were they demonstrated pre-match and post-match routines. The group loved this and could hardly sit still, wanting to go exploring the room and take it all in. With a group this size this eagerness gave the tour a very good atmosphere. It was obvious that interest levels were high and after a while the group were keen to move on from here for the final section of their day.

To round the day off they headed back to the front training pitch for more agility exercises, training games and more rugby skills. This was the group’s favourite part of the day and it ensured that everyone left the GPW Recruitment Stadium on a high.

Before they knew it, the parents were slowly arriving back to collect their children and while they were busy enjoying themselves on the pitch some of the parents gave their thoughts on the Saints Summer Camp.

One parent explained that: “We brought him here last year and he absolutely loved it, so this year he’s come again and brought his friend and by the looks of things they’re both really enjoying it.”

Another said: “We’ve come down from Huyton. We know Saints do a lot of work with schools, my niece goes to school in Haydock, and my lad’s a massive Saints supporter so when we found out about this Summer Camp it seemed like a really good thing for him to take part in.”

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