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As part of our continued growth as a club, we are proud to offer baseball for boys and girls who are under 14.
Through our dedicated group of coaches, we are committed to delivering safe, fun, inclusive sessions, which provide the perfect learning experience for everyone involved to reach their potential playing the sport they love.
Through our dedicated group of coaches, we are committed to delivering safe, fun, inclusive sessions, which provide the perfect learning experience for everyone involved to reach their potential playing the sport they love.
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As baseball is still a minority sport in the UK, it has always been hard for clubs to lay down the foundations for junior/kids baseball, whether it be due to the lack of coaches, training/qualifications or funding.
Many clubs want and desire to set up a junior program, but making it a reality is a massive step and many can never get over that initial hurdle. For those that do, they face the ever changing challenge of coaches coming and going, kids naturally growing up, finding local teams to play against and continually competing against other more 'British' sports like football, cricket, tennis.
Many clubs want and desire to set up a junior program, but making it a reality is a massive step and many can never get over that initial hurdle. For those that do, they face the ever changing challenge of coaches coming and going, kids naturally growing up, finding local teams to play against and continually competing against other more 'British' sports like football, cricket, tennis.
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During the existence of the Bladerunners, the current Junior program is not the first time the club has run a similar junior team. Back in the 90's, run by Steve Herbert, there was the 'Pumas' which was around for several years and went on to produce several Bladerunners, like 'Tommy' Booth and Jenny Brownhill. However, like we also stated, in our history section, when Steve stepped away from the game there was no one around to carry the torch and the Pumas vanished.
Fast forward to around 2010 and the junior baseball chatter picked up from being a trickle of clubs pushing on with their programs, to all clubs being encouraged to start junior programs as a sensible way of building the sport for the future and most importantly including the huge amounts of youngsters not currently able to take part.
Those clubs with willing coaches and an infrastructure, jumped on the chance and added to the growing numbers of teams with active programs. The Bladerunners knew it was something that needed to be done, but there simply weren't any willing volunteer coaches available, as most were training and playing twice a week already. So the wait continued.............
Those clubs with willing coaches and an infrastructure, jumped on the chance and added to the growing numbers of teams with active programs. The Bladerunners knew it was something that needed to be done, but there simply weren't any willing volunteer coaches available, as most were training and playing twice a week already. So the wait continued.............
Around the time Rich Green took over in 2014/15 the talk of starting a junior team became louder and Rich drove the plans to introduce it as soon as possible.
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Needless to say time and effort delayed it further, but by 2017 it was time to go. All the equipment was in place, there was a group of willing coaches and the search was on for the players. Initial sessions were a learning curve and timings, content, frequency, communication were all things to be continually learned about.
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Key to the launch of the Junior Bladerunners, was the support of the team at the Arches School Sports Partnership (especially Adam and Andy) who provided the backing to run the sessions at Forge Valley and promote the events, which was a massive help and reassurance to make it a long term success.
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In addition to the clubs own sessions, the coaches also became involved in other activities such as the Arche's very own 'Archie Camps', which take place during school holidays and the club also supported the Forge Valley School Sports Day by running baseball sessions throughout the day for all year classes.
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The club has also been involved in the American themed sports event held annually at Ponds Forge Sports Centre, hosted by Hallam Uni students.
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Over 2018 and 2019, the club continued to learn, grow and establish a core group of players to build around and hopefully develop and continue playing for many, many years.
2018 saw the club introduce indoor junior training, to offer the sport throughout the year. This came with its own learning curve of mixing with other seasonal sports the kids play, but the indoor venue at Forge Valley gave us a great environment to deliver solid 1 hour sessions for those available to attend.
The summer of 2018 saw the juniors take full advantage of a glorious summer and fully enjoyed smashing balls around on a Sunday. Also during 2018, the club increased its number of DBS checked coaches, making running sessions even easier to run.
2019 saw the development of a really talented bunch of players, including Tom, Cole, Paddy, Ciaran, Anthony, Jay, Seb, William and many more. The juniors were virtually ready to start playing games against other clubs and even squad numbers were sorted out. One thing the club would like to recognise is the players' parents. It has been a joy to have such a supportive and helpful group of parents involved, long may that continue.
While most clubs packed the kit away for the winter, the Bladerunners continued to host fortnightly indoor sessions for the youngsters to get their fill of winter baseball from October to March.