Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club

Junior activities with ESOC

Information about ESOC's various opportunities for juniors, including coaching, competitions, trips away.

ESOKids
In addition to having their own newsletter (The O-Zone) and Club Championships, our juniors – known as ESOKids – also have their own monthly coaching/training sessions run by the East of Scotland Orienteering Association (ESOA). These are held on a Saturday (usually 1pm to 3pm) from September to May. Coaching groups cater for juniors from 9 years old upwards, with additional exercises laid out for younger juniors (minimum age 6 years) accompanied by an adult. Qualified coaches run the sessions and details of upcoming sessions are distributed by email. Juniors from other orienteering clubs in the East of Scotland also attend.
Each year, ESOKids take part in the Scottish junior inter-club competition (the Jamie Stevenson Trophy), named after orienteering world champion and former ESOC junior Jamie Stevenson. Juniors compete on their own or in a junior pair.
Junior teams also compete in other inter-club competitions such as the Scottish Relay Championships.

Other junior activities:

  • Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival (SSOF) - many of our juniors compete, as individuals and part of a school team, in this competition which is held in early June each year. Pupils who compete in the SSOF can also run in the races to select Team Scotland representatives for the biennial World Schools Orienteering Championships.
  • As well as the inter-club competitions mentioned above, there is a Scottish Inter-Area competition; ESOKids, together with juniors from the other local clubs (ELO, INT, KFO, RR & TAY) run for East of Scotland against the West and the North. The competition includes both individual and relay races. These are held over a weekend and it is a great social, as well as a highly competitive, occasion.
  • Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS)
    For juniors who are keen, and successful at a club level, there are lots of opportunities to take your orienteering further. Each year a number of juniors from across Scotland, typically 30, are selected for ScotJOS. Selection is for age classes W14, W16, W18, M14, M16 and M18.
    Various training days, weekend and summer training camps are available, plus the opportunity to be selected to run for Scotland in the UK Junior-Inter Regional Championships (JIRCs) and the Junior Home Internationals (JHIs) against England, Wales and Ireland. A highlight of the current ScotJOS programme is a biennial summer tour to Scandinavia.

Other entries categorised under: Juniors