2007 Season Review ...

As most readers will know Poynton has enjoyed it’s most successful season in all it’s 118 year history, winning the Junior Flags final, Division II championship, Division IV Championship and Division V Championship and as a consequence of this being awarded the Brine Trophy for the most successful club in the North of England. This was the culmination, not of one season, but of a decade, or more, of planning. Just like most things in life this achievement did not just happen, we had to make it happen.

We have, over the years, produced many good players but what we were not able to do is put these good players into a team, any team, with regularity. This can not be seen as any sort of failure on those involved, pure circumstance. Poynton, perhaps more than most, lost players with talent and promise to other sports, to university, work commitments, family and many other reasons which most are familiar with. Most readers will remember the Poynton team of the early 1990’s where we had players that were at the top of their game with most being in their mid twenties, which is an age which is particularly significant to our current teams, including our B team. The teams of the 1990’s were good, but we never really set the top division on fire. Our teams started to progress at the turn of the millennium in winning the Junior Flags in some style in 2001, however those within the club who knew our game and our players, as good as they were, could not quite live with the standard the of the top sides in the game. In some ways this success was a bit of a false dawn, we had good players but some left to either go to other clubs or do other things and the downward turn was not only predicted but also happened. The players who left did not have the affinity with our club, not being a former part of our juniors, which in many ways is understandable. We have most definitely learned a valuable lesson from this which is the biggest single reason why all our efforts and time were directed at our juniors.

Not three months after our Junior Flags win was the very sudden and very, very sad death of Sean Johnson at a lacrosse tournament in London. The effect on the club of Seans’ death was one of great sadness and really made us think about what we do and how we do it. Sean was a very gifted player and a very chirpy and happy young man, he will always be remembered.

It was during this time that our junior set up really started to organise in a slightly different way. We started with people who had great enthusiasm for the sport and who were prepared to spend hours and hours and hours trying to recruit juniors, at all levels, but particularly at the younger end of age group. At this time, some 5 years or so ago, we had players, who had played at the highest international level of our game, retired from the top team and were prepared to commit their time and talents to our second, third and Under 19 teams as well as, and most importantly, to our juniors. This also, fortunately, coincided with a crop of juniors that showed very definite promise, not just in the Under 12 to Under 16 age group but also our Under 19’s, where we had an excellent group of players and given the right coaching, training, fitness and direction could and should be where the short and medium term future of our club must lie.

The junior set up really started to get organised with many people getting involved and trying to provide, not just training mid week and a game of lacrosse on a Saturday morning but a total package including enjoyment and fun by going that one stage further in providing other activities outside that of lacrosse. We also had and still have an excellent group of junior parents who are prepared to do all the things that parents do in encouraging their children to play as well as providing their professional skills and facilities to enhance the running of a busy sporting club, we really do have a excellent bunch of parents. Having parents that give so much support to both their children and our club is like having eleven players on the field, they make the difference, long may it continue.

The aforegoing are some of the reasons why we have had such a successful year, but by far the biggest reason we have tasted success is, not surprisingly, because we had the best players, we had the best coaches, we had the best managers and we had the best support. These are the real reasons we did so well across all of our teams. We all know that the more you put in to any activity the more you will get out. All of our players / coaches / managers have done that. As I observe from a short distance what happens in our club, what the mechanisms are for doing the right thing by each player by each team the activity that is done the most often is communication (please do not take this that what we have at Poynton is some form of business management guru speak, it isn’t), by this I mean that all coaches managers and captains talk to one another, and often, with this you get common understanding and more importantly common goals in deciding where do we want to be, when and with whom. This is the reason why we have been so successful, we all have a common aim – TO WIN and you will be sure that we shall be aiming to do it again next year. It is also worthy of note that the average age of our first team, this year, was 25 yrs, next year it is likely to be 22 yrs with the return of two of our ex juniors. Lacrosse is a young man's sport and with this age profile teams will win in the short and medium term as long as there is good rotation. The second team also has an age profile in the late 20’s and the third team mid thirties- this inevitably means we shall probably be putting out a fourth team next season, this club is definitely on the up.

The future is bright the future is ORANGE. We all very much look forward to competing in the Premier division, 3rd division, 4th division and 5th divisions next year without any fear as we are very well equipped to do well.

You may well have noticed that I have not mentioned, by name, of any of those people who have been involved with our club, both players and administrators, I have done this mainly for my own protection of not mentioning people who really should be mentioned and for that I apologise. I’m sure many will have great empathy with this situation. Suffice to say in my 10 years as Chairman we have had and still have a great group of people from administrators, managers, coaches, parents who do what they do extremely well, with great enthusiasm and professionalism. They will know who they are and to them all I give my personal thanks to each and every one, a really remarkable bunch of people, it has been the greatest of pleasures to work with and play with. We are now offering a sporting product that is, in my view, the best, not only within the area but outside also. It is with this type of support from within the club that we will be submitting our plans and schemes for the LacrosseMark accreditation shortly.

Graham Edmunds
Chairman
Poynton Lacrosse Club