Chairman's Message
Neil Hunter - Chair
WOW – what a fantastic year so far. Congratulations to all our athletes for some BRILLIANT individual and team performances. There is no doubt that the new City of York Athletic Club is really making its presence felt both locally and nationally. There have been far too many outstanding individual performances for me to mention but the team results have been fantastic – reflecting the incredible team spirit, great coaching and enthusiasm at this Club. Our younger athletes gave some solid performances in a very strong league and next year, with more members competing, we are confident of getting promotion back to the premier division. The U20 Junior team came 5th in their first season in the northern premier league, beating teams from Leeds City, Trafford and Gateshead. The seniors’ teams, not to be outdone, won both their leagues with the second team gaining promotion to division 3 and the first team going to the playoff match and winning promotion to the premier league.To put the icing on the cake City of York won the northern plate final at Manchester in a thrilling finale to the season.
CITY OF YORK AC - WINNERS!!
Northern Plate Final - City of Manchester Stadium
But that is only part of the success story. Behind the scenes we are also lucky enough to have some BRILLIANT coaches and volunteers without whom our athletes would not be given the opportunities to excel. Beneath this there is a very active committee who are working hard towards improving the facilities and opportunities at the club for athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers alike. We are financially supported by INGRAMS SOLICITORS whose sponsorship has helped ensure the innovative ideas to develop the Club became reality.
So what has happened behind the scenes in the last 18 months? Here is a flavour….The new website is a major development and will improve communication to all members.You will no doubt have noticed the new clubhouse which will also improve facilities and communication for members and recently we have transformed the under stadium area to create a fantastic new storeroom that will give us the space and security to enable us to invest in better equipment. The new Friday night sessions are really starting to take off and the newly formed disabilities group is growing in membership. We have an increasing coach base and many coaches are being supported by the club to undertake more training for higher level qualifications. The club is hosting a Children in Athletics course in October which will further increase the number of coaches at the club.There are plans to also put on an officials training course for those volunteers wanting to help at athletic events. Any volunteers for either course please let me (or any committee member) know ASAP. We are also coordinating an increasing number of satellite clubs that are intended to introduce youngsters to athletics which in itself is a success, but we are also hoping that participants will decide to join the club as full members. You will no doubt have noticed that all coaches are now wearing City of York tracksuits, improving visability at training and at events. There is also a range of kit available for athletes – Paula Bird is coordinating this. Paula is also the Club Development Officer whose (wide ranging!) role includes links with schools. Paula has also been instrumental in coordinating the Ingrams Summer and Cross Country Leagues which has increased the opportunities for athletes to compete in local events.
You may have read about the proposed community stadium for the City in the Press – which could be part funded by the City Council who may raise the necessary finance by demolishing the stadium and selling the land. One driver for this is clearly the financial situation that both York City Football Club and York City Knights find themselves in, i.e. unable to raise sufficient capital to build their own stadium. Obviously this will have a devastating impact upon athletics in North Yorkshire unless there are alternative, appropriate and timely facilities provided as part of the project. Huntington Stadium hosts the only synthetic athletic track in North Yorkshire and is extensively used by thousands of active individuals, not only by our 500 plus members but by local schools and organisations. It is essential that such a facility remains. I am working alongside the Council to ensure that the interests of athletics are being considered and I am pleased to report the Council has given public assurances that the first call on the capital receipt arising from the sale of land at the stadium will be used to finance a new athletics facility – at least to the standard of our current facilities. This will be a challenging project and, without going into too much detail, will not be completed quickly – especially with the added impacts of the widely reported credit crunch.
Consequently we are committed to continuing to improve the facilities at the stadium. Even if the 2012 target date is achieved, four years is a very long time in a young athlete’s life and they deserve the best facilities and opportunities we can provide.
I hope this gives a flavour of the clubs recent achievements and future challenges. I will use this area of the website to give regular updates during the coming months. If anyone has a question, a suggestion or simply a comment please don’t hesitate to contact me either in person or by email at: cityofyorkacnh@tiscali.co.uk