IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
AWARDS NIGHT
We remind you all that our awards night for 2014 is this coming Tues. 21st Apr 2015 and will

be held at Charlesland Golf Club at 7pm. Awards for Attitude, Achievement & Attendance will be presented as well as our 5yr & 10yr club memberships awards, team awards and Senior and Juvenile ‘Athlete of the Year’ for 2014. Refreshments will be served afterwards. All athletes and their families are most welcome. As this is being held on one of our regular training nights we hope that this year everyone will be available to attend. This is a great opportunity to see your children’s efforts being rewarded and a chance to meet the coaches and have a chat!
These awards are being presented for 2014, so athletes who only joined this year or late in 2014 will not have the required Attendances etc. You are however very welcome to attend and hopefully you will work hard during the remainder of this year and be back here next year receiving your own awards!
THERE WILL BE NO TRAINING THIS TUESDAY FROM 6-7PM pm & 7 –8.30PM DUE TO THE CLUB AWARDS  NIGHT! ! LITTLE ATHLETICS WILL RUN AS NORMAL FROM 5-6PM!       

2015 REGISTRATION CARDS
This year all athletes are being issued with  Life Registration cards. Some of these have arrived and we will hand them out to parents at the Awards night.  These cards now have just a Life Number., which members will have for their entire athletic career instead, of getting a new registration number every year. This is the number that will be used for all entries. Consequently athletes/parents need to look after these cards, as they will no longer be replaced every year.

HELP NEEDED URGENTLY
We  urgently need help at the 6-7pm training sessions. The total number of children attending at this time is 100 and we have waiting lists on all 4 groups. Only two of the present coaches have children in these groups and we are appealing to parents of these children to come on board and help with the training, otherwise we will not be able to continue with all of the groups. We really do not want to have to suspend groups, but will not be left with any other option if we don’t get some help soon. If any adults are available to help out, it would be greatly appreciated. We promise not to throw you in at the deep end and we will get you on to a coaching course asap. If you can help out once a week, or alternate with another parent every other week, please let us know.
Help is also urgently needed to cover check-in at 6pm & 7.30pm please. We are down to a small number of parents who are trying to cover all the sessions, or back to coaches trying to do this which delays the training, resulting in us being late finishing. This only takes about 15-20 mins max. but is a huge help to the smooth running of our training sessions.

UPCOMING COMPETITIONS
CO. CHAMPIONSHIPS.
This year’s Wicklow Championships will be held on two evenings & 1 full day, Fri 1st May, Fri 8th May & Sat 9th May. Full programme is posted on the sidebar of our website and there is a link on our entry form. All GAC athletes of all ages who want to compete in this year’s Championships must register on our website for each day they intend to compete. You must also list the events you intend to compete in each day.  Form is now up on our web site and closing date for all entries will be Tues. 28th Apr. No entries can be accepted after this date, so make sure you are in on time!


EXPLANATION OF AWARD SCHEME FOR NEW PARENTS.
Children up to age 10 in 2015 (U11), take part in an award scheme at the County Championships on Saturday 9th May, there are no individual events for these age groups. Each child competes in 3 events, a sprint, a long jump and a turbo javelin throw, and their points are calculated to get a finishing score. All athletes who compete in all 3 events will get a medal on the day. The top scorers will get gold, the next group silver and the remainder bronze.  Those who don’t complete the competition, ie all 3 events,  will not receive a medal. It will take a while to get through all the events for all the age groups and as the relays for the younger age groups are also on the Sat. afternoon, please come prepared to spend the day.  If we are lucky enough to get good weather it can be a very enjoyable day!
There are longer races and Obstacle Relays on Fri 1st May for these younger age groups, which start at 6.30pm and will be done within the hour.  We have not included events on Fri 8th to leave them fresh for the Sat. competitions.

CLUB SHOP
Our club shop will be open on Tues. 28th Apr.at 5pm and again from 7-8pm to allow athletes to purchase club gear before the County Championships. We now have new girls red shorts in stock in all sizes and also some ¾ length & full length red leggings. We also have a good number of secondhand spikes available as well as rain jackets, lightweight showerproof  trousers and club hoodies, club singlets & T shirts. We also have some black Nike tracksuit bottoms reduced to just €10.