Hi, my name is Paul Kirsopp and have recently been appointed as Schools Liasion Officer for Gateshead Rugby Club.

I began 7 yrs ago as a P/T Development Officer working in the Gateshead district under the Durham Y.D.O.at the time who was Matt Carter.

Two years later Mark Foster and myself were moved to Chester-le-Street to try and build up their youth section and to improve school/club links.

Mark and I set about the task and after a short while Mark took the post at Newcastle Falcons as Community Development Officer.

Since then I have continued to develop Chesters Youth Section where they now have 5yrs worth of kids to feed into their senior club.

I started working for Gateshead in September under the authority of Sid Crabtree the clubs Youth Chairman and together we decided to target Yr 7 and Yr9 which we felt were the age groups with fewer players.

We decided to target Joseph Swan,Lord Lawson,Heworth Grange and St Edmond Campion. Each school recieved 3 sessions at Yr7 and Yr9 then the schools will take part in a YR7 and Yr9 Inter Schools Tournament at Gateshead Rugby Club on Dec7th and December 8th.

From this I would then like to select from the schools a Gateshead District side at Yr 7 and Yr 9 under stage 3 and 4 of the Active Sport Scheme. In November Keith Walker held a Yr 7 tournament at Blaydon Rugby Club with the highest entry from the schools in Gateshead since the tournament began.

Two of the clubs schools entered namely Joseph Swan who came third and Lord Lawson who came 1st. This is great news for the club with schools entering tournaments at this age group and doing so well.

Gateshead also ran an U11s tournament at the club in November which helped to increase the number of players at this level. Newcastle Falcons also support any community activity with the Falcons turning out for presentations at tournaments etc.They also offer games of tag before premiership games with the finals played at half time on the main pitch and the kids doing a lap of honour before the main game.

Sid and myself will be sitting down to discuss a development plan for next year so if there are any budding coaches out there with spare time to offer I can be contacted on 0775 247 1410.

Thanks

Paul Kirsopp (Gateshead Schools Liasion Officer)