Volunteering

Many of our coaches are parents who started by lending a hand before participating in Scottish Football Association (SFA) coaching courses funded by Troon Thistle. If you choose to help, you could stay with your child's team as they develop over the years .If you or any member of your family would like to be involved with the Club, please feel free to contact any of the people shown on the web page for Contact Information – Age Groups or on the page for Office Bearers and Appointed Post-holders.

Meetings

 A general meeting of the Management Committee is usually held on the last Sunday of each month – look for special announcements on the Home Page

 Publicity 

Club reports will be published in future issues of "Going Out" magazine as Troon Thistle YFC  is a truly local club and deserves the support of the whole community. Articles of note should be sent to the Secretary or Chairman (see Office Bearers page)

 The winter nights are almost with us and we struggle to get suitable winter outdoor training facilities. There are no suitable grass training areas with lights in Troon and we share a small area at Dundonald Camp, which is in North Ayrshire, with our friends from Irvine Meadow B.C. We used to lease the land from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and pay for any electricity that we used but they have sold the land - although they gave us the changing rooms as a gift, the electricity supply was been cut off. On hearing our plight, a friend loaned us a generator but this was stolen and the changing rooms were vandalised. We had to hire a generator and, although it usually does the job, it eats away at much needed club funds.

The real problem that we have is that there are too many teams using a small area. We cannot vary it because the current lights are fixed and the new owners won’t let us add any more. Coupled with this, we now only have a verbal agreement to use the area and we could be asked to leave at any time.

To get round some of these issues, we decided to raise funds to purchase a mobile lighting tower so that we can share it with other groups, use it at different locations and move it regularly to prevent areas from getting worn. We applied to the National Lottery and Sport Scotland for grants but were turned down because our requests for around £9000 were “too small”.

If we don’t make a difference this year, dozens of children could have nowhere to train during the winter and that would be a great blow to two clubs that work hard for their communities.

To that end, we are undertaking fundraising activities to purchase a mobile lighting tower and are also asking for donations. If you are in a position to help – no matter how small the amount – we would be very grateful to hear from you. You can contact either George Grant (318069) or myself (317982) for further information and cheques should be made payable to Troon Thistle Youths Football Club.

John Irvine (Chairman)