The Falcons Jr (aka Junior’s) Sports Club (FJSC) of Edison, New Jersey recently hosted a weekend-long American Cricket Federation (ACF) Level 2 cricket coaching certification clinic attended by many prospective coaches and a group of youth cricketers.
While the interest for conducting Youth Cricket Development Programs at the grassroots level at local area schools in Edison and surrounding areas in New Jersey is very high, progress is hampered by the lack of adequate certified cricket coaches. Expanding the number of coaches with sufficient coaching knowledge is a vital part of FJSC’s mission to promote cricket in New Jersey and the USA.
Falcons Jr Sports Club, a registered not-for-profit entity in NJ is a family of passionate cricket lovers who have come together to inspire the youth (aka the Juniors), to discover the wonderful and popular world sport – Cricket!
The journey began for FJSC in 2016 when the founders Parag Khairnar and Anup Nair started a cricket training camp for interested kids in the neighborhood. They were joined by Prasath Rao in 2017 and Vijay DY who himself was running a similar camp the same year in South Edison. They became the trustees of the non-profit entity – Falcons Jr Sports Club. The kids who began playing tennis ball cricket in 2016, competing in the East Coast Youth Cricket League (EYCL) and ending in the Top 4 among the 10 Under-14 teams. FJSC now has a professional coach on board and close to 15 volunteer coaches, most of whom became Level 2 coaches as part the ACF camp this past weekend.
FJSC is in the forefront of promoting youth cricket in the Edison Township since April 2016, a journey that began with 10 kids, have since grown to more than 100 kids, all in the age groups of 7-14 years old. FJSC has a progressive and inclusive model that yearns to identify, nurture, build and promote potential talent from local communities to the regional and national stage, with a belief system that rests on two main pillars – Low Cost Model and High-Quality Training, with the help of volunteer coaches and a huge pool of parent volunteers helping with various aspects of the club.
As part of promoting the sport, FJSC recently conducted the second edition of the Falcons Jr Premier League (FJPL) 2018, a tennis ball youth cricket tournament that had 19 teams participating from all over New Jersey in the age group category of 7-14 years. The event was on the back of the hugely successful first edition in 2017. The FJPL 2018 had almost 300 kids who participated, and witnessed by close to 1000 individuals. The event ran across three weekends and was blessed by the Township of Edison and supported by a good number of sponsors. The event has now become a cornerstone for the club and is a highly anticipated event for cricket lovers in the state of New Jersey. Falcons Jr Cricket Club is an integral part of Falcons Jr Sports Club (FJSC).
The FJSC training camps are conducted throughout the year. At this time the Summer camp is being conducted at two locations in Edison, NJ. There is open registration this summer for four levels – Level Beginner, Level One (Both Tennis Ball), Level One Advanced, and Level Two (Both Leather Ball). The Winter Camp registration will begin during the second half of September. Anyone interested in joining the club, please send an email to [email protected]. Remember FJSC is a voluntary organization invested in the promotion and teaching of cricket!
The recent coaching clinics were administered by ACF’s Director of Coaching Jatin Patel, who helped prepare 14 of the FJSC coaches for the Level 2 certification. This is a major milestone towards providing an adequate number of trained coaches to help develop youth cricketers in New Jersey. With this FJSC is now one of the largest such programs in New Jersey, in terms of the number of registered members, players and in-house resident coaches which will help FJSC provide sustainable youth programs for many years to come.
ACF Director of Coaching Jatin Patel said, “My vision is to educate America and train cricket coaches, so they can train many youth players for many years to come. It is an effective outcome of the ACF cricket coaching program, and it’s great to see FJSC parent(s) team up for youth cricket development, and with this camp, new coaches are excited to launch “in school” and “after school” youth cricket programs to expand their programs. A lack of adequate cricket coaches in the club was holding up such a project.”
The camp concluded with the ceremonial event with speeches from Avinash Gaje, newly elected Individual Director on the USA Cricket Board and Founder/President of New Jersey Softball Cricket League (NJSBCL) and Srujal Parikh, President of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) and founder of National School of cricket. After guest speeches, Jatin Patel and Guests were honored to recognize the new batch of coaches and their certifications.
About the American Cricket Federation Cricket (ACF) Coach Certification Program
The ACF Cricket Coach Certification Level 1 program was launched in May 2014, followed by the Level 2 certification program one year later in June 2015. Since the launch, 24 States can now boast of having certified ACF cricket coaches.
Atlantis Cricket Club – NY and Queens United Cricket Academy in New York, NJSBCL in New Jersey, United Cricket League in Boston, MA, Minnesota Cricket Association Youth Program in Minneapolis, American Cricket Academy and Missouri Youth Cricket Association in St. Louis. Sarasota International Cricket Club (SICC) Sarasota, FL. Colorado Cricket League in Denver, Washington Cricket Center in Washington DC, Florida Cricket Conference in Orlando, FL, Pittsburgh Cricket Association, PA, Southern California Youth Cricket Academy, Los Angeles and Southern California Junior Cricket, Los Angeles have served as hosts for the ACF coaching camps/training sessions held since the ACF Cricket Coaching program was launched.
The following testimonials from Falcons Jr Sports Club’s coaching staff are indicative of the success of the ACF clinics hosted by Falcons Junior Sports club.
“Simple but Superb!! Jatin Patel is a very knowledgeable coach, His simplified approach to a complex game says a lot about his experience. We had a very engaging and thought provoking weekend with Jatin Patel. He was definitely the right man for the Job.” – Krishna Natarajan
“Enthralling! Engaging! Hands on! That’s how Jatin Patel runs his workshop! I have been coaching kids for the past three years, however ACF’s workshop and Jatin Patel’s many years of experience, demonstrated to me how much I can still learn and apply, in making coaching a fun and learning experience! Thank you Jatin Patel” – Anup Nair
“Jatin Patel approaches coaching from a very practical aspect rather than religiously following the book of cricket coaching. His ideas to teach skills by creating the situations is new and very valuable. I am certainly more confident as a coach since his training, and I am looking forward to associating more with him in the future.” – Murugan Manickam
