• A survey of club members, so we can gauge support for a variety of potential initiatives and get feedback on the current policies, but more importantly to ensure that the Committee is building the future foundations of the club from the wishes of members.
• A 3 year strategic plan will be developed from this survey, and other mediums, and this will be put forward for debate and discussion at our AGM later this year
• A review of our Governance structures, and the constitution by which the club is run.  Again, members will have an opportunity to have input into this process.

Clubs like ours rely heavily on volunteers and the wider community to achieve our goals.  We are extremely lucky to have a huge group of very committed volunteers who help to get over 1,000 people playing soccer for Upper Hutt City every weekend, this is no mean feat!  We also rely heavily on Trust Grants and Sponsorship to supplement the income received from subscriptions, and without this our club would simply not be able to operate.  If anyone can help by providing sponsorship or donations this is always appreciated, as we are always looking for additional funding so we can upgrade clubroom facilities, purchase equipment or get better quality coaching for all our players. If you have any ideas, please contact our sponsorship manager, Ali James on a.james@irl.cri.nz

One area where we really need some help this year, is managing the clubs finances.  Our position of Club Treasurer is currently vacant, and we could really do with someone who wants to take on this role.  We have turnover approaching $250,000 p.a. and balancing the books is a very critical task.  If anyone has any finance or bookkeeping skills, and wants to help out, please contact me on peterandnic@xtra.co.nz

Finally, to the action on the field.  It has been a promising start to the season for many of our teams, not least the men’s and women’s first team who have had some great results so far.  Our juniors continue to be competitive in all grades, and some of the talent on show is really promising for the future of our great club.  In addition, this year represents two significant achievements which should have a huge bearing on our future performances as a club.  Firstly, this year we have appointed the clubs first full time director of coaching, Ian Porteous.  Ian comes to us with a wealth of experience at both the professional level in the UK, once having played under Sir Alex Fergusson at Aberdeen before he became a household name with Manchester United, and also at the coaching level here in NZ with clubs such as Lower Hutt, Olympic and Wellington United.  Ian ability, and his infectious passion for the game is rubbing off on both senior and junior players alike, and this can only be good for all our players as we move forward.  Secondly, the club has managed to obtain two overseas players from a leading University in the United States, who will play in our men’s first team for the remainder of this season.  The club has established strong links to this University, and in the future we hope to be able to offer some of our promising juniors the chance at a scholarship or similar exposure to soccer in the USA.  Remember this is where NZ’s best player, Ryan Nielsen began his senior football career and look where he is now!!  There is more detail on both these initiatives in the newsletter, but it’s fair to say that without the great support from the Rimutaka Licensing Trust neither of these initiatives would have been possible.

I hope you enjoy reading this inaugural newsletter, and I look forward to your continued support to Upper Hutt City Soccer as we all aim to make our great club even greater

King regards,

Peter Thomas
Chairperson 

the presidents piece

Well the last couple of months have been pretty full on with a number of issues to deal with and I am pleased to report that progress is being made in many areas.

Having been involved previously I am not unfamiliar with the demands in helping lead a Sporting Club such as ours. It is fair to say however that the Tararua Sports Club is a large organisation today and running such a Club, with a significant turnover, can be at times as demanding for those involved, as running a small to medium size business. The biggest difference of cause being that this is entirely voluntary so it is important always to put everything in perspective.

Some of the frustrations voiced by others recently are no doubt to some degree due to the fact that the Club has outgrown some of its’ traditional structure. To progress forward, we as a Club probably need to make changes both at an Operational and Constitutional level, recognising equally that our ability to progress initiatives and deal with issues will typically be slower at times than we would all like due to the voluntary element and that we operate always by means of majority agreement.

The challenge therefore is to put in place a new structure that identifies and manages the primary needs and responsibilities of the Club and support this with a policy of best practices, which will ultimately become a how-to document for all Club procedure.

This in practice then should allow the Clubs needs and operations to be understood and managed by anyone becoming involved in the future.

This is a big task and one that will take time to complete. It is however our objective to complete the fundamentals this year and ensure whatever is proposed is representative of our Members and representative of the Executive as a whole.

Peter has introduced change already with the establishment of Sub-Committees, each with a very specific agenda and separate Chair to convene these. The sub committee structure will help move things forward quickly through ensuring members of the Executive have a specific area of responsibility to focus on, workload is distributed and equally we can ensure the best use of available skills and expertise.

In addition to this we already have the Junior Committee, well established to manage the demands of organising a very large Junior Player base. The establishment of the new sub committees are in many ways an expansion of the Junior Committee structure so specialisation is achieved also in other areas.

It may be that other members of the Junior Committee wish to get involved in any of the new sub committees and if so we would welcome the input.

We emphasise also that the above sub committee structure is informal at this stage and we may well add to or change this following a trial period.

As mentioned previously, we want to ensure that whatever is proposed and agreed is representative of our Members. Please feel free to contact the Chair of any of the sub committees and have your say. We look forward to your input. The Chairs’ are in bold type.

At first glance it may appear that all this is over the top, for this is just a local Football Club, but the reality is that we must put all this in place to maintain financial stability and have a realistic chance of achieving our strategic goals.

There are already a number of new developments afoot, covered separately by others and we all are very confident that exciting times are ahead for Upper Hutt City Soccer

I will continue to use this medium to keep you up to date with progress throughout the year

Chris Waite 

ladies club captain comment

As the club captains role was not filled last year I decided to put my hand up to give something back to the club and assist the coaches with everything they need to create successful teams.

The 1^st team have a new “women’s cut” strip this year and the 2^nd team have moved up a grade to Div. 1 becoming more competitive to act as a feeder team to the 1^st team.

We have a mixture of young and old in both our teams so if you find some spare time on Sunday be sure to check out the action at Harcourt Park, the bar is always open and there is plenty of exciting action happening out on the pitch.

Good Luck to 1^st team Player/Coach Wendi Henderson currently training with the NZ Women’s Football Squad in preparation for the Beijing Olympics later this year, and congratulations for being recently recognised as Upper Hut’s Sportswomen of the Year, a well deserved recognition and a great way to put Upper Hutt City Soccer on the Map.

Thanks Shar 

message from the juniors

The junior season is underway with teams playing all over the region. I've had the pleasure of driving rain in Newtown, bright sunshine in Carterton and appalling conditions at Trentham so far. What does next weekend hold in store for us?  Nursery grade is underway with 70 registered this season. I couldn't wish for a better, more experienced group of coaches to take these players through their first season of football. Thanks Ian Howard, Steve Matthews, Tony Gorman, Jo Gorman and Ali James along with players from the clubs Senior 1st men's team.

This season we have two new sponsors of junior strips. I'd like to thank Upper Hutt Car Sales and save2learn for their support.

The Junior Committee currently has two vacant positions, Secretary and Trophy Officer, if you would like to know more about these positions please contact me.

FOCUS ON THE 12^TH GRADE

This season sees the 12^th Grade with 4 teams.

With Capital Football’s changes this season to teams below this Grade playing on smaller size fields for longer, all the girls in this grade from last year (apart from one) elected to play down a Grade this year and are playing in 11^th Grade teams on the smaller size field.

This season we have introduced the Squad system for the JPL and Promo teams.

The Squad has 27 players and the Squad Management team is; 

• Lorraine Bowring – Head Coach
• Michael Knight – Squad Manager and Assistant Coach
• Peter Donohue – Assistant Coach
• Neville Austin – Assistant Coach 

Training for the Squad occurs on two evenings but after the first 6 week review, the management team have decided to try training over three evenings with JPL on the first night, then the Promo team on the second night and the Squad as a whole on the third evening. Player movements between the JPL and Promo are smaller now that the teams have settled but it allows the Squad Management team to try players in positions and bring them up into JPL and see if their skill level fits in the JPL environment. Also the cover for injury and sickness is better. The main aim for the squad is for the improvement of the skill level across all players. And measure this improvement.

Having a big squad like this means that the key factor needed is communication and I am pleased that the management team and parents have taken ownership of this Squad concept and making a real effort to make this work.

The Squad is very pleased to have one shirt sponsor and a lot of thanks goes to for being the shirt sponsor and the name of both the JPL and Promo teams. Thanks very much Kevin.

The other two teams in the Grade play in the Hutt Valley League. There are no sections in the Hutt Valley league because of the number of teams. So some of the score lines become a bit one sided.

UH Newbolds won their first game 13 nil. They lost to an Eastbourne team 4-1, and I believe that Eastbourne team should be playing in the Promo league. Michael Schneider is the Coach of the UH Newbolds team. Michael was reluctant to become a coach because Michael and family have just emigrated from Germany and the English language was a problem. I said, no worries, Football is the language of the world !!  Michael and Monika, welcome to New Zealand and the Club.

UH United are coached by Steve May, and enjoying some interesting results, like a 5-4 win against Stokes Valley, but because Stokes Valley didn’t have enough players, Steve lent them a couple of UH players. One of those players scored a hat-trick – very nice sporting behaviour, but talk about running the score close for the Grade Manager !!!

Check out all the details for the 12^th Grade on the Club’s website (only junior grade to have this!!!). Including the Golden Boot trophy table with Sam Dewar leading the way with 11 goals.

NewsList.aspx?ID=641

Cheers, Ian van der Meulen

12^th Grade Manager

Focus on the Junior 12^th Grade – Match Report – JPL

UH Car Sales 2  vs. Stop Out 1

What a difference a bit of competition and passion makes!

An absolute team performance.  The team was up for it from the start and ruled the game for at least the first 15 mins, quality passes, positional support and recovering play.

An early goal from Sam set up by Dan and Cam got the guys off to a brilliant positive start.  5 mins prior to half time Bradley substituted in order to rest for the second half. Jake was then moved up to Bradley’s position and Justin came on as left back. 5 mins into second half, Matthew came on for Dan who had made some excellent runs and through ball passes.

We lost formation in defence and gaps were evident, Stop Out were unlucky not to take the advantage.  10 mins into second half, Bradley was back on, Jake returned to Left Back. This gave Upper Hutt their formation again and the pressure was re-directed back at Stop out.  Answer - Second JPL goal, involving Aitken receiving, turning and passing fwd, a flick on header by Cam and Sam finishing one on one.

Stop out really stepped up the pressure and forced a defensive error giving away a corner. This allowed stop out an opportunity which they took and a goal from corner put them back in the game. Stop out sensing they could pull something out of this game came at Upper Hutt with a vengeance and the challenges were getting stronger every minute.

Midfield played extremely well getting back in support and pushing forward when they had to. defence and Hayden play with passion and determination and the whole team was rewarded with a win they truly deserved.

If they continue to play with this much determination and skill and add communication to warn and create opportunities, we strongly believe that they have a chance to finish the season amongst the top teams of the league. If not first place. Every boy played this game with determination and passion and the held nothing back this is their best performance to date and should be very proud of them self’s as the team coaches and manager are.

I'd like to wish all players and parents the very best for the season and remind everyone that we are all there to make the experience of football as enjoyable as possible for the players.

           
Left to right: Harrison Dean, Jake Dwight, Harry Kerr                                                                                     Player of the Day: Sam Dwer 2 goals

John Blaike
Junior Chairman 

director of coaching

Since coming on board as Director of Coaching for Upper Hutt in Late January, my main aim has been to find out what level of players we had right through the grades.  It’s no secret that our 1^st team has been struggling for the last few years, so one of my main objectives is to raise the level of performance and profile of our 1^st team.

With only three games played, I am confident that we are moving in the right direction to have a decent season.  I have been trying to instill a winning mentality with the players as we need to get out of the habit of losing.  This can be done with a good work ethic and constantly working at raising our skill level.

Another objective is to work hard at pushing forward our U19 players.  We have a lot of talent in this age group but they will need time to adjust to making the step up from college to our 1^st team.  The guys themselves need to be patient because the step up to senior football is not an easy one.  Again, from what I have seen I am confident that come the end of season we will have several U19s who can be 1^st team regulars next season. Our second team is also looking stronger as they have been working really hard, have developed a good team spirit, are keen to improve and push for a 1^st team place.

Over the school holidays I have been running several extra coaching sessions for various age groups.  This has been very well received with the numbers being very good.  It has been great to see the level of interest as this bodes well for the future of the Club.

We are due to start up the Academy in a couple of weeks.  In the past this has been run by John Blaikie and Kevin Blair who have both done a great job.  I will be working closely with John and Kevin to get more out of the Academy.  We want to make this a real asset from which the Club will benefit from in coming years.

From what I have seen the Junior side of the Club is being run very well.  I have been trying to get involved with as many of the Junior grades as possible.  We have huge numbers registered with the Club and have many talented kids spread throughout the grades.  We need to give the Juniors as much attention and coaching as possible because, again, this side of the Club must be used as an asset to make our Club become stronger in future years.

As of yet I have not had any input with any of our women’s teams but am hoping to work with them in the coming weeks.

I think that for too long Upper Hutt have not been achieving any success.  The Club has huge potential and it is now time to fulfill that potential and make our Club become attractive to players all over the Wellington region.

Ian Porteous   

senior mens talk

MENS 1^ST TEAM

The Season got away to a bit of a rough start against Tawa however we bounced back the following week against West’s beating them 5-1. The team really stepped up and showed an all round good performance. The last few weeks have been a little inconsistent with a one all draw against Lower Hutt, a 2-0 win away against Marist and a poor performance against Kapiti going down 5-3. The performance of the season definitely has to be last weeks game against Wairarapa, coming from behind to beat them 2-1 at home. The guys really showed heart and a never say die attitude. 

Having Ian’s experience and knowledge has really helped the team develop from pre‑season.  His speeches and words of wisdom have helped motivate the team especially the young, up and coming players.  He is a valuable asset to the clubs future.

The future is looking bright for the club due to the hard work of the committee member’s week in, week out.  A special mention also has to be made to the clubs sponsors, without them the club wouldn’t be as successful as it is today.  Last but not least, a big thank you to all our supporters who show up rain or shine. 

Best of luck to all the other Upper Hutt teams for the rest of the season.

Andy Le Prou

MENS 2^ND TEAM

There are a lot of new faces in the 2^nd team this year. A lot of the “older” guys from last season deciding that the cold training nights were too much for the aching joints now, taking decades of experience out of the team. Luckily some of the younger guys (and Karl Jenner) from the 3^rd team have stepped into the void.

We started the season with a good 3-1 win over newly promoted Stop Out, and backed that up with a hard fought 1-1 draw with a very good Tawa team. Things fell apart a little with a 6-2 loss to Karori, and although the effort as been there since we are struggling to find the back of the net now. We have played some great footy at times, and been a little ordinary at times too.

Although I can’t fault the guys effort on game day, the turn outs at training has left me a little disappointed. It’s hard to get the team working coherently with the numbers we are getting on Tuesday and Thursday nights. And having a great coach like Ian at the club, I would have assumed very one would have been dead keen to get out there and learn from him. Everybody is so keen on a Saturday, so where is that enthusiasm for training??

Status of the season so far is unfulfilled potential. We are at present 3rd to bottom in the league, and this is not were we should be with the players we have, nor is it a reflection of the effort put in on Saturdays. Every one needs to step up, get to training, and make sure the season gets back on track.

After re-reading this, I thought it sounded a little negative. But we have a huge potential in the team, and a good number of the guys could push into the 1^st team in time.

I think at present I am frustratedly-optimistic?? 

Homer. 

senior womens talk

LADIES 1^ST TEAM

The return of some old mixed with the new is the make up of the Central League Women’s squad this year.  Squad is the key word in that sentence, as if we are to do well in the league and cup runs this year, it will take a full squad effort.

We had an unusual luxury this season with over 30 players turning up to pre-season training, allowing us to form 2 strong squads with players moving between teams week by week.  This creates hungry players fighting for 1st team squad selection, and once there, starting eleven spots.  It is a headache to select players after trainings each week, but a headache that is a pleasure to have compared to sourcing ring in's on a Sunday morning.

Again the club has supported us off the park, with the new strips and training gear.  Having it all taken care of allows the team to focus on the games.

We currently sit 2^nd equal on the table with 3 wins and one loss.  We're through the first round of the Kelly Cup vs. Karori, and have secured league victories over Miramar, Massey and Marist.  We welcome support from all club members so if you have a free Sunday afternoon, check out our games and be part of the action.

LADIES 2^ND TEAM

U/Hutt Womens 2nd Team, currently playing in Women’s Div. 1.

Welcome to new coach Shane Benge, the women’s 2nd team results so far are:

6/4/08 - U/Hutt vs. Petone - Outstanding for their first game and out played Petone 5-1. 

13/4/08 - U/Hutt vs. L/Hutt - Full on game with the final score 3-1 loss to L/Hutt.  The team played well with great skills shown by some of the younger players.     

20/4/08 - Div 1 cancelled due to weather

Shar  

happenings around the club

The committee are working hard with a number of initiatives around the club to improve the facilities for you our players and members, just before the season started we held a hugely successful working bee at the clubrooms that was well supported with volunteers to make our club a better place.

Thanks to those that gave a few hours of their time to help out. Work was carried out in numerous areas including changing rooms cleaned and water blasted out, toilets all scrubbed and cleaned, kitchen cleaned from top to toe, exterior of the building washed, storage units cleaned, all carpets, chairs, tables and upholstery cleaned, dugouts washed and cleaned just to name a few. You may have noticed that a lot of the glassware has been updated and replaced in behind the bar for the start of the season as well.

Thanks to the kind fellows at Select electrical here in Upper Hutt we have had a new state of the art CCTV security system installed. This will allow us now to identify the delightful characters that insist on causing damage to our clubrooms. This system is very up to date and we appreciate the effort that John and his team have put in installing it. Remember to support our sponsors and if you need any electrical work doing be sure to call John on 5266895

We hope to have the projector installed for you in the coming weeks against the far wall. We have had the old extractor fan from the smoking days in the clubrooms removed to make way for the screen thanks to big Russ for the plastering and Billy Carroll for the painting ; this will enable us to hold more events within the clubrooms like screening the away Phoenix games, and any international football games etc.

Work is in progress in designing a storage unit above the bar to house a LCD TV. Screen, nip pourers and glasses etc will keep you informed.

We want you to become official financial members of our club, new club membership cards are on their way with various benefits to you as our members. More details to follow next month. 

upcoming fixtures at harcourt park

Saturday/Sunday  17/18 May

SATURDAY

CHAMPS PREMIER CHATHAM CUP

UPPER HUTT VS ISLAND BAY  HARCOURT 1 2.30

CAPITAL 4

UPPER HUTT VS ISLAND BAY HARCOURT 2 12.30

SUNDAY

WOMENS CENTRAL

UPPER HUTT VS MARIST HARCOURT 1 1PM

WOMENS 1

UPPER HUTT VS NORTH WELLINGTON HARCOURT 2 1PM 

ckub sponsors

We all know that our club doesn’t run without support of  sponsors and we as a club recognize this  and are extremely grateful for their support so please if you get the opportunity,  please support those in the community that support us here at Tararua Sports Club. Please take the time out to read through our sponsors  below

* RIMUTAKA LICENSING TRUST                       * ANGUS &BURRELL MOTOR COMPANY

* SHARP                                                                  * RYOS WELLINGTON

* BETTER PLASTERERS                                     * SELECT ELECTRICAL

* YOUTHTOWN CHARITABLE TRUST              * NZ COMMUNITY TRUST

* WESTPAC                                                            * SAVE2LEARN

* SELIG                                                                    * MAIDSTONE SPORTS

* MORTGAGE LINK                                               * CARTRIDGE WORLD

* DOLLYWASH                                                       * B & P ENGINEERING

* UNITED WATER                                                 * T BARR PLUMBING

* UPPER HUTT CAR SALES                               * NEWBOLDS

* ADVKIT                                                                  * STEVE MCNABB ELECTRICAL

* PARAPINE                                                            * DZINE SIGNS

next months issue

We will hear from our Two new American imports on their thoughts of their experience so far. We will have team updates from other grades as we make our way round the club. A comment from behind the scenes from our newly elected President Chris Waite. Wendi Henderson pops in with her thoughts on Beijing, Nod gives us a rundown on events happening at the club and  John Blaikie gives us a wrap on happenings at the Junior level plus loads more 

note from the ed

Guys and girls, I hope you have enjoyed reading our 1^st issue of the HARCOURT HERALD providing you with information on what’s happening at your club. Over the coming months we will be able you keep you up to date with the progress that we are making through this newsletter. We are working extremely hard as a committee to make this an even better club and are progressing well.

We are starting to see the results of a lot of hard work over the last few months hope to achieve a lot more before the season is up. As I mentioned earlier if you have a comment or contribution to make for the newsletter please contact me on phil@ryos.co.nz  and I am more than happy to help.