Welcome Back
We are now very much on the ‘pathway’ to the safe return of training beginning week Monday 26th April 2021. We would appreciate it very much if you took some time to read the protocols and become familiar with them again.
This club fully appreciates its obligations and responsibilities and prioritises your child’s safety over all other issues. Hence, the significance and seriousness of these protocols.
The purpose of this communication is to ensure that coaches / parents and children in our age group understand the attached protocols and good practice guidelines that are in place prior to attendance at our training sessions. Coaching will take place in Moanbaun Academy grounds.
It is important the protocols are adhered to and that your child also understands them prior to our 1st session. On the following pages you will find all the information that you need
Local Protocols especially for the first day of training
Good practice guidelines
Information will be communicated to you from the team coach in relation to the date/time of each session. Please note that the club have been working to ready the facilities and put measures in place to ensure players and coaches return to a safe environment. Thank you to the voluntary Covid Officers; they are an immeasurable assistance to my task of developing these young players. It is an onerous responsibility for those involved in this climate. Please contribute your part too for the safety of all in this group and wider club, by being familiar with our guidelines.
Protocols for return to play.
No dressing rooms will be open (unless absolutely necessary in cases of emergency)
All attending training will arrive already kitted and togged out and following the rules outlined below.
When participants arrive they will enter on the left side of the car park area, and be met by a Covid Officer, who will take your child’s temperature, and the parent will confirm that your child has no symptoms. On the first day of training, the parent will also be requested to sign a Consent Form. The player will then proceed to the training area. Attendance records will be taken at all sessions.
You (person training or coaching) must stay at home if you:
Have been in contact with someone with Covid-19 or a suspected Covid 19 case in the last 14 days.
Have been overseas or exposed to someone with Covid-19 in the last 14 days
Have flu-like symptoms or are feeling unwell
Have a temperature of 38°C or more
Experience the sudden onset of sough or a shortness of breath
Experience a sudden loss or sense of taste and smell.
Please follow HSE guidelines for further Covid-19 information.
If this is the case, or for whatever reason that you are not attending, it is most important that you convey that message to the Coach or designate. This is most important for tracing purposes.
Toilets will be available (in emergency cases only) but please make sure to use the toilet before leaving home.
The names of all participants in each group will be retained by the club in the unlikely event that tracing be required.
All participants will stick to allocated pitch and warm up and cool-down areas during training sessions.
All participants will have access to sanitisers at all stages.
All participants must sanitize hands when entering and exiting the Academy pitches.
All footballs, cones etc. will be sanitised as groups move to various aspects of the session.
Under no circumstances will any parents or anyone else except coaches /covid officers be allowed to enter the training area during the sessions.
Parking is provided but is limited in space available so please drop off and leave and collect you child after training. If you are staying in the car park please park your car on the astro side of the car park.
Once the session is completed all participants must leave the training ground at the session conclusion time.
All Coaches and participants will have to declare if any member of their family or anyone they have interacted with has or was infected by COVID-19 in the past 14 days. Please contact (Club Covid Officer) Paul Xalkey directly 087 2273 511.
All materials left behind at the training grounds, shall be deemed as contaminated items and destroyed.
All attending training will bring their own water bottle drinks, hand sanitiser and training gear (gloves, shin pads etc) with their name clearly marked on it.
All attending training will place their own water bottle drinks, hand sanitiser in the designated positions.
Bibs will be allocated and washed after every session. No mixing of bibs should occur.
No handshakes, no high fives, no fist pumps, no chewing gum, no spitting at any time
Good Practice Guidelines
Car-pooling is not allowed as it is not in keeping with social distancing.
All players to observe the cough/sneeze etiquette – by doing so into their elbow at all times.
All players and coaches to avoid handshakes, high fives, fist pumps and spitting (rinsing mouth out with water) at all times.
All players and coaches to practice social distance and keep to the 2 metre distance at all times.
Be at the training ground a minimum of 10 mins prior to your start time. We endeavour to have the protocols finished and completed within 15 minutes.
Players to be dropped off at the car park and allowed to walk down ‘togged’ and ready for training.
Players and Coaches ONLY past the clubhouse entrance, and present on pitches.
ALL players must bring their own marked water bottle and look after it during and after training.
ALL players must cleanse their hands entering and leaving the training pitches at designated sanitizing stations.
Protocols For Coaches
Coaches will undergo the same process as outlined above prior to players arriving for training.
Time keeping is KEY to keeping safe measures in place. *Sessions must be timed and executed within that time-frame. ie: a session from 8.30-10:30, it must start on time and more importantly finish 10:15 to allow for cool-down, sanitizing and time to exit pitch towards car park.(This is important from coaches perspective, as I need to be returned to work by 1100am).
Under NO circumstances will equipment be shared.
All equipment (Balls/cones/footballs) to be sanitized after each group.
Apart from Athenry FC coaches and players, NO other person/s will be allowed in the training area during sessions.
No handshakes/fist-pumps, coaches and staff must practice social distance by keeping to the 2-metre distance ruling at all times.
All coaches and staff must adhere to the coughing/sneezing etiquette. (into their elbow)
Athenry FC Covid Protocol (April 2021)
From April 26th, 2021 all underage players can return to non-contact training in pods of 15. This is the first step on a phased return for football at all levels of the game.
Key Points
We will follow the FAI protocol with our own additions to increase safety.
Training will take place in pods of 15 max (including 2 coaches)
Playing and training pitches can be used in Moanbaun and Raheen only
Where required 2 pods can train on all weather at the same time.
Training starts and finishes on time in the all-weather, the 15-minute gap is following FAI
Guidelines and cannot be used by either team
All training is non-contact training and must be followed as a key priority. There is no in-house matches, small sided games, or other activities that will involve contact between player.
Teams found in breach of rules will have their training sessions suspended - we are not trying to take the joy out of soccer but protect people from the virus
Covid communications will be sent to covid WhatsApp group (Garret will continue to communicate within this group)
The WhatsApp group will also receive feedback and issues from covid officers
Garret will share Galway FA Covid incident form and each teams covid officer will be responsible for recording and giving back to the secretary.
The covid officer for each team will record attendance and keep an eye on training to ensure adherence to rules and finish the session at the correct time, they will send an image of roll back to set email address.
We will monitor training sessions at random times, but this should be self-policing.
Garret will send out FAI protocols and relevant forms for covid officers, we will print off what is needed also.
All coaches and covid officers will always wear masks/ visors where possible.
As per the FAI protocols parents of under age kids can stay at training but must maintain social distancing, we will always ask them to also wear masks/ visors if they stay.
For the duration of Level 5 each player must play with his own age group only and are not allowed to train with the additional panels they may be currently on.
No person (child, parent/guardian, coach, player) should attend an event if unwell or any members of their household are unwell with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 including awaiting test/ results or a confirmed case. Athenry Football Club with deal with any breach of this in the most stringent way.
Social (Physical) distancing, hand hygiene, and good respiratory etiquette should be observed by all (children, parents, coaches and adult players).
Households should bring their own household members to the event and not share transport to or from the venue.
If the parent/guardian is staying at the event, they should not congregate at the venue, please maintain the correct social distancing and wear a face masks/ visor.
We encourage parents to have children wait in the car or outside the venue until just before the beginning of a practice, warm-up, instead of congregating with other children prior to the start.
Notification of attendance to the COVID-19 compliance officer or event organiser ensures adequate facilities and staff for safer training and contact tracing. This is done prior to the start of training.
Children should arrive, train and leave in their gear.
Everyone should be encouraged to cover their coughs and sneezes with a tissue or use the inside of their elbow. Used tissues should be thrown in a waste paper bin.
Avoid sharing of water-bottles. Each child should bring their own water-bottle clearly labelled with their name.
Where physical distancing is not possible or followed, face coverings should be worn by coaches, officials, parents, volunteers and any other spectators present. Face coverings are not intended to protect the wearer, but rather to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 from the person wearing the mask.
Thank you for your continued support and adherence to government regulation.
Arrive at training
Form queue for attendance logging and hand sanitiser
Proceed to your designated pitch (warm-up area)
Existing team finish training exit pitch in clockwise direction to collection point