Fiji international Ryan Millard on Hornets community work

Rochdale Hornets Fiji International playmaker Ryan Millard

At the Hornets we’ve been doing some quality work out in the community promoting the Hornets brand. This involves doing some work in primary schools, high schools and various other events. Our main work comes through activities in schools and after school programs.

We’ve just finished off our work in schools for the term. In these sessions, we were teaching the kids the skills and rules of rugby league. At the same time, we’re promoting the Hornets and giving the kids their daily dose of physical activity.

Our work with the kids culminated with a three day camp, sponsored Safeguard Group, held at Firgrove playing fields. For this camp, all primary school children were invited to come along for one, two or three days of the camp. During the camp the kids were taught the skills of the game, along with a little bit of fun during each day.

The camp started each day at 10.00am and was finished by 2.00pm. In this time there were activities out on the field along with a few activities indoors when the weather wasn’t so hospitable.

The camp ran extremely well, with the participants ranging from as young as six to as old as 11. With many of the kids already playing or following some sort of rugby League team, it made things a bit easier in trying to teach the rules and skills of the game.

For completing the camp each child was given a ticket for themselves and one for their parents to the Hornets game against Whitehaven at Spotland last weekend. A fair number of the kids turned up to the game and I’m sure they were happy to see the Hornets get the win. Hopefully a few of these kids will turn into regular fans and come along to more games or even be potential future Hornets players further down the line.

Our work starts all over again with the beginning of the new school term coming up, and hopefully we can continue to encourage young kids to come down and watch a few Hornets games throughout the year.

Ryan Millard