Hornets’ holiday sports camp hailed 'great success'

Rochdale Hornets’ holiday sports camps at Mayfield Sports Centre have been hailed a great success after around 70 local youngsters took park in activities over the Easter school holiday.

The sessions were put on by Hornets’ Sporting Foundation, giving children from across the borough the chance to get back to playing sports together following the easing of restrictions.

The holiday sport camp was open to boys and girls age seven to 16 and was free for those who attended. The children enjoyed rugby and football coaching, general fitness, ball skills and even some arts and craft activities, designing a new kit for the team.

Foundation coach Kirsty Crehan was delighted to see the sessions proving popular as ever, saying: “It’s brilliant to have the kids back at sports camp, they just love running around, having fun and learning new skills. We focus mainly on rugby but play all sorts, the aim is to get them active and help foster a genuine love of all sports.”

Local housebuilder Russell Homes was recently unveiled as the Sporting Foundation’s sponsor for the next two years, and helped to fund the holiday club.

Kirsty said: “We really appreciate the support of Russell Homes, without sponsorship we couldn’t put the camp on for free and that could limit access for some children. Everyone at the Foundation has worked so hard to get activities back up and running and it was really wonderful to see so many youngsters here over the holiday.”

 

 

Russell Homes’ sales manager Jackie Matheson popped down one afternoon to meet the coaches and take the youngsters some tasty treats, and found herself joining in with some of the drills. 

Jackie said: “The children were having such a lot of fun, it really was fantastic to see them enjoying themselves so much. Many said how much they’d missed playing with friends over lockdown and they were so excited that sports camp was back over the hols.

“Lots of the youngsters and their families are Hornets fans and love their rugby and were so proud to be doing this camp with ‘their club’. The coaches are fantastic and have a lovely rapport with the kids, they do such a great job.

“We’re very proud to be sponsoring the foundation, its community activities play such an important role in getting kids active and enjoying playing together. I hadn’t intended to join in but the kids were so enthusiastic so I had to give it a go. I’m not a natural rugby player but it was good fun all the same. And I couldn’t go down empty handed, so took some sweet treats as a reward for all their hard work.”

The Rochdale Hornets Sporting Foundation programme continues throughout the year with a variety of events for children, young people and adults, including more activity camps during the Summer Holiday.

For more information see the Rochdale Hornets website.