Astra HC is looking for Financial Support for the Projects outlined below.

New coaches Education – 2013

As part of the club long term development Astra HC is trying to have a stronger participation in schools’ handball by directly delivering coaching sessions to the school teams, hence facilitating the transition of young athletes from school to club activity.

A key element of this project is the qualification of new Coaches.

Astra HC aims to qualify five new coaches at the Level 1 coaching course that will be held in September 2013.

Astra HC is organizing and delivering the course with the support of its CI (Coaching Ireland) qualified Tutors and other experienced coaches. This course will be recognized by CI and the EHF (European Handball Federation). The Course is open to all aspiring coaches.

Sponsorship of this project will finance the Course expenses like hall and class room rents, and will also support the Astra HC applicant course fees.

The Course will be run over 60 hours split between 50% theory and 50% practical, and it has an estimated cost of €3000 for the rental of facilities.

Experienced Coaches Further Education – yearly

AstraHC encourages and supports the continuous education of its coaches as part of a continuous development culture.

Over the past 4 years AstraHC has been sending its experienced coaches to attend EHF Coaching and Youth Coaching seminars. In order to maintain the coaching quality of the club at the top level, the Club aims to be able to support at least one coach to attend such a high level seminar every year.

Sponsoring this project will support the course expenses for one coach per year to attend the EHF Youth Coaches Seminar, which is held over 4 full days in conjunction with the U18 EHF EURO 2014 competition. The Entry fee only for such courses is €180 (no travel and accommodating cost included).

Club Administrator Education – 2013

Astra HC believes that the strength of the club is based on the development and consolidation of all the club’s activity and good management of all the club’s roles and responsibilities. For this reason, Astra HC will look to support one of its members in attending the Sports Volunteer Development program, which is an initiative of the UCD Athletic Union Council, the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Sports Partnership and the UCD Centre for Sports Studies.

The course fees for one participant are €75.

Moreover, in 2014 Astra HC would be looking into sending a club manager to the EHF Club Management Seminar. This is another high profile and handball-focus course organised by the European Handball Federation. the cost of this Course are €500 course fees, €350 accommodation. Travel costs are not included.

Club Development Officer – Yearly

Astra HC wants to improve and consolidate its junior section under all aspects (quality, quantity, connection with schools etc.).  The club is operated by volunteers only and this ambitious project requires volunteers with specific experience in sport development. Astra HC would like to be able to offer adequate compensation to a volunteer qualified and experienced to take this challenging and highly time consuming task. The estimated cost of such a project has been quantified at around €1,500

Players Development – Yearly (U17, U15)

In order to raise its international competitiveness, Astra HC will need to include in its youth competition calendar a yearly training camps in the European countries ranked in the top 15 places of the EHF list.

Over the past couple of years, the U17 Female team took full advantage of the Club’s connections with other handball Clubs in continental Europe to travel there and play a series of friendly matches that are very important for the young player’s development. Next February the young team (now approaching the senior category) will travel to Spain for another series of matches. A contribution of €2,000 would ease the cost of the trip and allow some young players to take part in the Camp.

Players Development –  2013 (SM)

The Senior Men’s team comes from a three-year journey that has just culminated with the winning of the Irish Title. The next step for the team would be to measure its development status by playing in the preliminary round of the EHF Challenge Cup. This is a high profile competition that would boost player motivation and truly challenge the team under all aspects. Unfortunately, this competition has high entry fees and overall costs. A contribution of €3,000 would enable the team to take part to the competition by lowering the participation costs for the younger players who would not be able to afford the full expenses. Moreover, this would also boost the Club’s chances to be able to host this high profile event in Dublin.

Players Development – (SF) 2014

Three years ago women handball in Ireland suffered a setback with an important loss of members. Astra HC was also affected, but in a much smaller extends thanks to the focus the club has on women handball. Since then the club engaged with the IOHA, draw and led a women handball development plan that gradually brought women handball to a more comfortable position. However, the project is far from being completed, and the next two to three years will be crucial for its success. In the upcoming 2013/2014 league AstraHC will be able to field two teams. However, the overall number of matches is still not sufficient to sustain a competitive team.  During the season the club will need to organize as many small tournaments as possible, also inviting teams from continental Europe to raise the quality of the game, player’s motivation and involvement. A contribution of €1500 would sustain the project, helping not only AstraHC, but the entire women handball development plan to go successfully to the next step.