Sunraysia Junior Darts Academy

These shirt presentations are one of my favourite nights! These are awarded to the kids who have completed two full seasons with us and they all enjoy it! Wee Johno even said to me "I'm finally happy" lol. We'll deserved to all the juniors as well as one of our coaches, Renee Eloise, who has now received her shirt as well. Thanks for all your help Renee!

Just want to give the three boys who were away for the weekend a quick mention. Looking at the stats they all performed well against some stiff competition. Jeremy even picked up the highest match average in the junior competition with an average close to 77! Unfortunately he lost in the quarter finals to the eventual winner Landon Key. Also wanted to give a shout out to Darts SA president Brett Selga for taking Tom under his wing and partnering up with him in the men's doubles.

See you all at the club tonight!

Just wanted to wish three of our juniors all the best for weekend as they travel to Adelaide to take part in the DSA Southern Open, hosted by the Southern Dart League. George, Jeremy and Tom will all make the trip down. George is our junior representative to the committee and Tom is travelling to take part in his first competition outside Mildura. On Monday Jeremy broke the club record on the JDC routine yet again so will be hoping to take that form into this weekend comp. Best of luck boys!

Some photos from Monday night. Great to see the juniors so focused on the job at hand! Except one, who may or may not be related to the director 😂 😂 👏👏👏

No records broken this week but we did have two birthdays to celebrate. Marie and Nathaniel are now a year older and I'd like to thank them for bringing in cake for us all to share! We also have another birthday on Thursday as Makaylen turns 18. Hope you all got spoilt rotten!

On the darts side of things George came up with his personal best JDC score while Annalise hit a very impressive score despite not hot a signal number on the back half of the routine! It's great watching our juniors progress!

I've also added the poster for the 2024 Mildura Open to this post. We will be running out first ever junior competition, prizes are yet to be announced but entry is free for all juniors.

Well he just went and done it didn't he! Jezza broke our club record score for the JDC routine three weeks in a row. This time breaking the 800 mark with a score of 834! I should also mention that Jezza has done all this with a fractured bone in his throwing hand! He also went on to win our knockout comp last night beating Ash in the final.

Unfortunately there's a bit of a bug going around at the minute and we were a few kids down but the ones who made it all performed well. Caitlyn was near to her personal best and Tom hit another shanghai. Great stuff all round. Hopefully everyone is feeling better next week!

There's still time to sign up for season 3 so if anyone would like to get their kids involved please don't hesitate to give Scott a call on 0457579799 for more information.

In all the excitement on Monday with Marie winning her first title and the presentation I forgot to mention a couple of things. First of all we have two new members, Zac and Nathaniel. Both have joined us for a couple of sessons during season 2 but it's great to have them on board now and we all look forward to watching them progress.

Last we have Jeremy who for the second week running has broken the club record score on the JDC routine. This week he scored a very impressive 738. Can Jezza do it 3 weeks running? Let's hope so!

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend. See you all on Monday!

What a week for our academy!

First a huge congratulations to all the juniors who attended the Murray Bridge ANZAC Grand Prix. In particular Marie who won her maiden title in the junior girls event, hopefully the first of many! A special mention to Jezza as well who qualified from his group on Sunday throwing some great darts against senior players. This was a great learning experience for our juniors, all 4 of which were able to take positives from the weekend as well as analyse their performances and look at ways they can improve.

Last night we then had our presentation for season 2 of 2024. In total we handed out 8 new grades with two who couldn't attend still to receive their medallions. We had Emily, Caitlyn, Cameron and Violet all receive their white ribbons and we look forward to watching them progress through the JDC system. Straight in as a purple on his debut season we had Linkin while Annalise moved up a grade to purple. Lastly our two big improvers were AJ and Makaylen who have both now moved to yellow. Unfortunately Makaylen will be turning 18 in a couple of weeks so will no longer be able to take part. So it was great to see him move up a level in his final season.

None of this would be possible without the parents who bring their kids along week after week or the coaches who volunteer their free time to get the best of of our juniors. So a huge thank you to each and every one of you! Lastly but certainly not least, there wouldn't be an academy without our juniors. You guys make the academy what it is and it's a pleasure to watch you all improve and move up the grades.

A huge congratulations to our very own Marie Kiernan who has won the junior girls competition in Murray Bridge this morning! Enjoy the moment Marie, well deserved!

We have four of our juniors travelling to Murray Bridge Darts Club Inc (official) this weekend for the ANZAC Grand Prix. Best of luck to Marie, Ash, George and Jezza. Win or lose these four always set a great example for the rest of our juniors.

Been a couple of weeks since I last made a post but last night the kids finished season 2 with a bang. Jezza hit the highest JDC score we've ever had with a score of 794, hitting a shanghai on the way! George also found a bit of form with a very nice score of 609 while Tom hit his first ever shanghai. With our younger group of juniors, Josh doubled his best ever score and Joe wanted me to give a special mention to Caitlyn who also hit her highest ever score after a bad week last week.

All these personal and club best scores really show how far and how quick these juniors are progressing in the sport and it really comes across when we watch them mixing it with the adults. Keep it up! We'll see you all again next week when we will have a quick presentation before getting into season 3. If anyone had any kids interested in signing up get in touch with Scott on 0457579799.

Pretty quiet night at darts last night which was to be expected being Easter Monday. Thanks to the parents and kids who braved the storms to come down! A special mention this week has to go to Annalise who got her highest ever score. With our older group of juniors we played a straight knock out comp where Jeremy and George met in the final yet again. Jeremy was too much for George averaging just shy of 67! Great darts mate.

See you all next week!

Last night we welcomed along 3 new members. Zack, Nathaniel and Linkin. All 3 fit right in with our group and despite some early nerves all 3 made a great start to their darting journey! We also got to share in Caitlyn's birthday celebration with some cake. Hope you got spoilt Caitlyn! I also want to thank Memsy who came along to help out with coaching our older kids as well as Tim who is always happy to jump in and help out when he can make it.

This is also the last week we'll be collecting darts supplies for the Western Australia junior darts club. As you can see from the photo below we've already collected a lot of stuff but let's make one last push to help these kids out.

I'm very happy to say that we will have 4 new juniors joining us on Monday night! However this has led myself and Joe to make a tough call. These 4 extra kids signing up will bring us to a total of 28 members, a number I couldn't even have contemplated when we first started this academy a year ago. In order to provide the best coaching we can while giving each child the time they deserve we have decided to limit Monday nights to a total of 30 juniors. When we reach that number I will start a waiting list for our academy. If we get sufficient numbers on the waiting list we may consider running another night as well but only time will tell and will be dependent on coaches availability.

Like I said this was a really tough call to make but it has been made in the best interest of our current crop of players. This leaves two open spaces so if there are any parents that would like their children to take part now is the time to get in touch! See you all on Monday!

On Monday night we celebrated one year of the Sunraysia Junior Darts Academy. A crazy year which has seen our academy go from strength to strength. Great kids, parents and coaches have all come together to grow something special here in Mildura. Seeing how far these juniors have progressed in a year is reward in itself and it's great to see so many of them now competing against the seniors! A big thanks to Wendy for organising a special treat for the kids with a heap of personalised chocolate bars from Be Sweet by Jess.

Unfortunately we are losing two of our coaches for a few months due to other commitments. Scoffy and Luke will be back but I'd like to thank them for everything they have done to help out. Stepping up to help fill the void is Kathy Potter and Renee Nichols. Hopefully we will announce another coach in the coming days as our numbers continue to grow.

I want to give a special mention to AJ Nichols this week who nearly doubled his personal best on the JDC routine! AJ recently moved up to train with our older group of juniors and I think it's brought out the best in him! Keep it up mate.

Over the next week or two we will be collecting supplies to help out a fellow junior darts academy in Western Australia. Anything you can provide, even one set of flights, would be much appreciated and can be dropped off at the club on any of the nights that we are open.

This might be the first week this year that I haven't had to welcome a new member but unfortunately we do have to say goodbye to Ethan. Ethan has been with us since we opened one year ago and has been great to have around the club during his time with us. Unfortunately for us, Ethan has been excelling at volleyball and has decided to focus on that. We wish him nothing but the best and like I said to him last night he will be welcome back if he ever changes his mind.

Last night we started off with our presentation for season 1 of 2024. Josh got his white ribbon as he starts out on his darts journey. A big mover was Destin who received his purple ribbon, in no small part thanks to his incredible shanghai a couple of weeks ago. Our last ribbon was a yellow that was presented to Ash. Ash has been working hard to improve both in the club and at home and it was well deserved. We still have one more ribbon to present next week!

Last night marks the one year anniversary of our academy opening and with 24 kids now, we have gone from strength to strength. I want to say thanks to all the kids, their parents and the coaches. It's been a real team effort to get where we are now and here's to many more years to come! To celebrate our first year we will be putting on free pizza for the kids and parents next week, see you all then!

I want to start off this week with a congratulations to Marie who got her first ever 180 last night and in a competitive match as well! We also ran a quick knockout competition between our older group of kids with Jeremy coming out on top in a close fought final with George. I can see these two going toe to toe in many finals over the next few years!

It seems like every week our club gets a little bit bigger with 3 new members coming along to give it a try. Charlotte, William and Violet all took part in their first session and we're hoping to see them back again next week. It's great to see so many kids giving darts a go!

Best of luck to our three juniors who are heading to Adelaide to take part in the Swyftflight South Australia Classic. George, Jeremy and Ash will all be taking part in what is sure to be a huge weekend of darts. Gotta give a special shout out to Jason Eastwood who has been taking these kids everywhere over the last year.

What a hectic but brilliant night at darts last night! We combined our long awaited presentation from the final season of last year with a regular night of darts. Before we get into the awards I would just like to thank Helen from the Junior Neighbourhood Watch and Glen, a councillor with the Mildura Rural City Council both of which helped with the presentation last night.

The Junior Neighbourhood Watch are our major sponsor and have been on board with the Sunraysia Junior Darts Academy from the start. They take a pro active rather than reactive approach to keeping kids off the street and their support is always welcome.

The Mildura Rural City Council was represented by Glen Milne as we thanked them for a recent grant which helped us secure new tablets for the academy. We use these tablets every week to record our JDC routines and we are very much appreicative of their support as well.

Now on to the kids! We started the night off with our shirt presentation. Once one of our juniors has completed (mostly) two seasons with the club we reward them with a shirt completely free of charge. Last night Hamish, Harmonie and Destin all received their new shirts. Again a massive thank you to Helen from the Junior Neighbourhood Watch, their support is the reason we can do this for our juniors and it was an honour to have Helen present the shirts to these well deserving kids.

Next was our gradings with each medallion and ribbon being presented by Glen. I'm not sure we have handed out as many medallions since we started the academy one year ago but this presentation we handed out 6! It's a credit to these kids how they are working their way up the rankings and long may it continue! Hamish, Harmonie and Destin all received their white ribbons while Marie became our highest ranked female and the first to reach yellow. Ethan and Liam have now joined our highest ranked players by receiving their green ribbons. Who will be our first blue ribbon? Can't wait to find out.

We also welcomed along another two new members taking us up to a total of 22 juniors! That number continues to blow my mind! Callum and Caitlyn both came along to try out darts and we're all hoping that they enjoyed themselves and continue with our academy as we near the start of season 2.

Those of you who know me will know that I've wanted a junior academy in Mildura for the longest time, they are the future of the sport we love. Now that dream has become a reality. We have good kids, ready and eager to learn, parents who get involved as much as they can, great coaches who give up their free time as volunteers to help and mentor the kids and a great club in the Sunraysia Premier League Darts Club who have given us a venue and the support we need to bring this all together. Thanks to every single person who has helped and contributed to this academy, the smallest gesture does not go unnoticed!

Our wee club just keeps growing and growing. Last night we were happy to welcome along Ernest Jnr who joined Joe's younger group of kids. Speaking of which one of Joe's group, Destin, hit their first shanghai and on the 19s! Congratulations!

I just want to take a minute to thank all the coaches, Joe, Scoffy and Luke. In the year this academy has been running we have gone from strength to strength and while this is mostly down to the dedication of the children and their parents the coaches play a large part, giving up their free time as volunteers to help develop the young talent that we have here. We're all learning as we go but I couldn't be prouder of the group that we have.

Last night it was great to welcome back both Jypsie and Makaylen. Been a while since we've seen either one and they were straight back into it, working hard to improve.! We also had Emily join up with Joe's group for the first time and we're hoping to welcome her back again next week. As for the scores, 11 year old Liam hit the highest of the night with an impressive score of 623! Only 6 points off his personal best of 629. It's amazing how far they have all come in just a year of our academy being open.

We are now offering FREE sessions for all new kids until the end of this season. If you want to sign your kids up you can contact Scott on 0457579699 or contact this page directly.

Here's an interview with JDC founder Steve Brown. He talks about how the JDC was formed and gives a glimpse into the future of the organisation.

'I started the JDC above dad's bar – now we have 60 academies across the world' EXCLUSIVE: Daily Star Sport speaks to Junior Darts Corporation founder and chairman Steve Brown, who's looking to bring through the next Luke Littler

Another great night of darts last night. First I'd like to welcome another new member, 6 year old Charlie Robinson as well as welcome back Annalise from her holidays. Our younger group of kids, under Joe Clarke's coaching, are coming along in leaps and bounds but it's one of our teenagers I want to give a special mention to this week. Ash hit a new personal best in the JDC routine and is fast becoming one of our most improved players. Keep up the good work!

Some photos of our juniors at the Brendan Dolan exhibition courtesy of Brittney Carter. Brittney also runs Hoot & Hive Creations, look them up on Facebook for some great gift ideas.

Another great night for our junior players at the Sunraysia Premier League Darts, Brendan Dolan exhibition. Hopefully this was a night that they well always remember as they got to go on stage and play against one of the best players in the world. Not only did they get to play but they also got their chance to score on stage.

Jeremy Hensgen, who came out on top in our junior qualifier, was the first to take to the stage. With an average of 52.11 Jezza gave a great account of himself holding his nerve to pick up a ton in the second leg. Chase Trevena, who won the door prize, was the next of our juniors to get to the stage and had the full support of the crowd. Hitting at least two 80+ scores over the three legs that he played against Brendan, losing 2-1. Brendan did swap scores with Chase but we'll not let that get in the way of a good story!

George Eastwood, our junior rep, who qualified as the SPL B Grade Mens Champion threw what was probably the best leg of all our juniors! With a first 9 average of just under 70 George had a good crack at the first leg and even had a shot at a double! The last of our 4 juniors to play Brendan was Liam Trevena who won one of our raffles (thanks to Memet Yilmaz) in the build up to the competition. The fact that Liam turned down the oppurtunity to swap scores with Brendan speaks volumes of his character.

You'll see below our 4 juniors pictured with some of the other players who took part on the night along with the man himself, Brendan Dolan. Great to see two of our own exclusive JDC shirts on display!

This is just another example of the opportunities available at one of the biggest JDC Academies in Australia. If you're interested in taking part juniors will now be free for the next month on Mondays 6pm-7pm. You can contact Scott on 0457579799 or message this page directly!

Great to see our juniors picking up awards at the Sunraysia Premier League Darts presentation. Jeremy Hensgen finished top of Division 4 while Marie Kiernan finished second in Division 5. Marie also picked up Division 5s MVP trophy as well as Rookie of the Season. George Eastwood was MVP for Division 3 and he received his first 180 badge after hitting one on Wednesday nights. George was also part of the Lazy Anglers team that finished runner up in Division 1 while Liam Trevena was part of the Dartside team that finished runner up in Division 2.

All in all the future is looking bright for Mildura with our juniors not only mixing with the seniors but holding their own. Can't wait to see how they all go throughout 2024.

How good is this setup?