Hi everybody, Welcome to the very first Academy North blog.
We hope everybody has stayed safe and healthy, and we all know 2020 has been a strange year so you don’t need to hear it from us. However, if you look at the local cricketing community this summer, there is a lot of positives to be taken.
From the moment lockdown was lifted it seems like so many clubs took on every opportunity to get as much cricket on as possible, and a lot of credit has to go the hard working volunteers of all clubs and leagues who managed to salvage the 2020 cricket season.
We know some young cricketers have ended up with more cricket than ever before, and some older ones are already needing another break! We would like go on record praising the volunteers in those clubs & leagues who have made all this happen.
ACADEMY NORTH SUMMER CAMPS 2020
At Academy North we strive to create opportunities for all cricketers to fuel ongoing participation and a desire to improve and keep improving.
Our summer camps are an integral part of our programme and it seemed even more so this year with a lot of children (and our coaches!) having spent so much time without cricket or any physical activity for so long, and what began as a plan for 4 camps soon ended up with 7, a huge increase for us on previous years.
It was great for us to return our usual haunts of Liverpool CC & Wavertree CC and as always it was lovely to see so many of our “regular” faces back for more and still enjoying. Our approach to coaching goes significantly beyond the technical into developing the whole person, so the fact we had so many returnees from previous camps we’ve run made us proud that the learning environment had been fun for them to return.
Additionally, it was great to see so many new faces who we hope will continue to come back, and this is testament to the work done at their clubs that they wanted to continue to engage with their cricket, even though 50 players on a 30 degree day at Liverpool may have tired us out a little!
As well as South Liverpool, it was even more exciting for us and we managed to get off the ground at 3 new venues over the course of the summer.
Our camps at Ormskirk CC were the product of some positive discussions over the winter, and we can’t thank the club enough for moving quickly with us post lockdown to enable an incredible 3 camps over the course of the summer. The engagement of all the young players at Ormskirk impressed us, however the parents won us over the most with one providing the beers at the end of the week for our coaches! We’re very excited for our partnership with Ormskirk to progress in 2021 and beyond.
We also managed to kick off partnerships with Highfield CC & Upton CC this summer, with huge thanks owing to Matt at Upton, and Gary & Luke at Highfield.
Like Ormskirk, Upton has been the product of long discussions and a complete confidence that we share values in the long term development of cricketers. In addition to the camp at Upton, we managed to deliver a 6 week 1:1 programme and our work with the club is something we hope to progress and continue. If the 6 previous camps required us and the clubs moving quickly post lockdown, then Highfield definitely broke the record. Thanks to very quick discussions and decision making with the club we managed to engage 74 young cricketers from the Wigan area, despite only committing to the camp 14 days before. Very exciting signs for the future, as all our camps this year and partnerships are about working towards long term goals and not just one camp!
Finally, whilst we didn’t manage to get the camp off the ground at Southport & Birkdale CC, we are massively looking forward to forging an ongoing relationship at S&B with some exciting ideas already discussed…watch this space!
THE NUMBERS
- 7 camps.
- 5 venues.
- 734 summer camp places sold.
- 400 1:1 hours delivered.
- £2000 pumped back into local clubs.
- 10 Liverpool Competition coaches given paid work opportunities.
- 3 young Liverpool Compeition players given their first coaching opportunities.
- 16 Liverpool Competition clubs’ players represented.
- 38 podcasts released.