The Junior Development Day was held in Birmingham and players aged 8-16 years from around the Country came together for what was sure to be an amazing day.

The first challenge was to set up the goals and the court. Using teamwork and goalball knowledge this was done in a matter of minutes, we then started with some teambuilding activities; everyone had to stand in a line and you had to get into order. First, we lined up by name, then by age and then the length of time playing goalball.  The purpose of this was to get to know each other and we certainly did that.

In the next challenge we formed teams and had to complete races. The first race was the over and under race followed by the quiet race which Chelsea and I struggled with as we’re not known for being quiet!

Then came a relay race where we had to pretend to act like an elephant which certainly made everyone giggle.

After this introduction we then got into groups with the aim being to develop our goalball skills.  For this we had the privilege of being coached by a world class player in Great Britain’s Caleb Nanevie!

After lunch we played standing goalball with the highlight being Caleb getting nutmegged by Stuart Hudson.  Big shout out to Stuart!

To complete the day we put our new found skills to practice in what was a fun and competitive round robin.  There were 4 teams containing 4 people.  Team names were The Los Angels, Goalball Gang, Furious Five & The Goalsterzzz.  The Goalsterzzz came first, closely followed by The Forgotten Angels and Goalball Gang in joint 2nd and Furious Five bringing up the rear.

As always the day was filled with fun, excitement and laughter and was a great opportunity to meet new Goalball players and hopefully stars of the future!  A special thanks to Caleb for coming and sharing his talent with us and for Becky and Chris for organising the event.

Write up by Meme Robertson, Lancashire Lions GC Player and Goalball UK Competition Committee Young Player Rep