VERY IMPORTANT…… PLEASE READ
Greystones AC is a vibrant, busy, rapidly growing club where we try to cater for all levels and abilities in both the children’s and adult groups. All our coaches are volunteers, who give their time and expertise freely to help our athletes develop and to try to foster a love of athletics in them. While we encourage participation in the sport and an active social aspect within our club, we are, above all, a competitive athletic club and expect a level of commitment from our juvenile members.
All juvenile athletes are expected to attend regularly. As we have very big numbers and a growing waiting list, those with irregular attendances are  removed from our check-in sheets and have to go back on to the waiting list until a place becomes available, if they wish to return. If your child has not been attending regularly, please check with coaches before leaving them at training. Children are quite often dropped off at training after weeks of absence when they are no longer on our lists. We cannot take responsibility for non club members.
In particular, we remind athletes in the 7.00-8.30pm groups that they have three training nights every week and an organised training run on Sunday mornings. Athletes are expected to attend a minimum of two of these sessions each week in order to keep up with the group training. Attending less than this is unfair to yourself, to the coaches and to the other athletes in your group, as it holds back the entire group! Athletes in these groups are also expected to represent their club at a reasonable number of  competitions.  If you cannot give this level of commitment, we can move you to the earlier 6-7pm training time, where the work rate is less intense.
It is the responsibility of parents to make sure children are collected on time after training sessions. Coaches are busy checking in the incoming groups and are unable to supervise collections as well. We have tried unsuccessfully to get a parents roster going to cover this, so if people are willing to help out please let us know. If enough volunteer, it could be once a year or less.
We are asking once again that athletes make sure to use the toilets before coming down to training as it causes huge problems if a coach has to leave a group  to bring them up during the session.
Parents and brothers/sisters are not allowed inside the track during training sessions, but are welcome to watch from outside the fence. Please note that the Outdoor Gym Equipment is for age 14 up only and children should not be allowed to play on this! (Health & Safety)
CONGRATULATIONS
Well done to all the athletes who competed in the XC in Roundwood last Sunday. Fantastic results all round with Rachel Diggin, Sadhbh Redford & Steven Diggin all taking individual golds, Sinead O'Neill and Luke Horgan taking silver and Sophie Nicholson taking bronze. Team gold for the Girls U12, U14 and U16 and team silver for the Boys U12. While we had about 90 athletes competing last week, this is still only one third of the members who could be there, so we are hoping for a much bigger number this week. Results on our website www.greystonesac.com and on www.athleticswicklow.com. Photos from last week’s event on GAC web-site and Facebook page.
Congratulations also to club members Carol Costello, Nicola Crean, Claire Ryan & Genevieve Harden, who along  with a few of our Fit4Life friends, completed the “Hell & Back” race last Sunday. Well done folks! See club Facebook page for pics of our ‘Little Devils’. Well done to Orla Caffrey and Meichelle Mooney getting those 20 milers done….roll on the marathon!
COMPETITION
We have the second of our County Championship Cross Countries this Sunday 14th Oct in Avondale House, Rathdrum. and these are open to registered athletes only. This is uneven ages, but you can move up 1 age group if necessary. Athletes need to arrive at 10.20am latest to allow for check-in and warm up. Younger athletes will be finished within the hour. U7’s and U9’s all receive certs with their finishing places for completing their race. Last week’s certs will be issued shortly. U11’s up are championship events with medals for the 1st three individuals only. U10’s compete U11 this week. There are also medals for the 1st three teams and we need at least 4 for each team, so let’s get everyone out there, please.
Please wear club singlet/T-shirt if you have one, otherwise  a  red or white T-shirt!  Course is opposite the bus carpark.
E-MAIL theresa.kinane@gmail.com OR TEXT 0868635797, NAMES FOR SUNDAY NEXT TO THERESA,  BY FRIDAY  12TH LATEST.  NO ENTRIES CAN BE TAKEN ON THE DAY!
XC LEAGUE
Round 2 of the XC league has been changed to Friday 30th Nov. in Bray Emmet’s grounds, Old Conna Avenue. Bray at 6.30pm. There was a fantastic turn out from our younger athletes in Round 1, but we fell down in the U14/U15 groups. Big effort please, we need as many points as possible from all age groups.
NATIONAL ENDURANCE SQUAD
Congratulations to Jamie Cullen, Padraig Lennon and Eoin Taggart on their selection for the National Endurance squad. Well done guys……well deserved!
MORE HELP NEEDED
We have a good number of committed coaches helping out, but are still looking for more volunteers to lighten the load, so please call Theresa 0868635797 if you can spare an hour a week or even every other week. We promise not to throw you in at the deep end. New recruits work with one of our experienced coaches and we also send them on a short coaching course. Ideally, we would love to have two coaches with each of the younger groups, at all sessions. This can be a great way to get involved with your children’s sport and can be very rewarding as you watch the athletes progress.