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22
Jun
The coach trying to establish rugby league in Harrogate
The head coach of the Harrogate district’s only rugby league team has completed his first year in charge of the club.
Jed Gowland joined Harrogate Hawks on June 2, 2024. The club was previously known as the Fire Ants.
The side struggled to get players after it was formed in 2021, but now has over 70 registered players.
The Hawks entered the Yorkshire Men’s League for the first time this season. They are currently fourth in division six, the bottom tier.
The Stray Ferret recently visited Knaresborough RUFC’s ground, where the Hawks currently play, to speak with Gowland.
The head coach left his role as assistant coach at division two Leeds side, Bramley Buffaloes, to join the Hawks.
At the time, the Harrogate club were not yet entered in a league.
Gowland told us what influenced his decision to join:
I felt like I was ready to move on and take on a new challenge. We’d played [Harrogate] a few times right back in the days when they were the Fire Ants. Then Laura Symmonds came on board, and we struck up a friendship through organising games.
My last game for Bramley was against Harrogate. Laura asked me if I’d like to come and take them on. I saw real potential in some of the players that played that day.
The former Bramley coach said that Harrogate’s set up was very different to Bramley’s when he first joined.
He added that, because Bramley were a professional club until 1999, the club was still run in a professional manner.
Gowland emphasised that his main aim was to bring the culture at Bramley to Harrogate, stating “I want us to feel like a family”.
Training sessions at Harrogate were identified for improvement, and Gowland set to work on implementing changes.
The head coach said that he sees himself as a ‘new style coach’, who puts his arm around players that might be struggling, rather than shouting.
He added that he wants his players to feel engaged in training, so he opens the floor to them for feedback.
Gowland said the Hawks were different to most rugby league sides, which usually have “a lot of big voices, egos and attitudes”.
Ambitions
In their six games so far, the Hawks have won three and only lost to the three teams above them. They have not lost by more than 10 points.
Gowland said that a promotion in the next few years is “definitely realistic” because the side have “not really been out of a game yet”.
He pointed to the team’s match against Knottingley Mustangs, in which they overturned a 10-point deficit by scoring three tries in the last 15 minutes.
The head coach praised his team’s improved fortitude. He said when he first took over their heads would have dropped, and they would have struggled to get back into the game.
Off the pitch, Gowland said he wanted to make the Hawks “more of a household name”. In a rugby union dominated area, there are still many people who may not know the club exists.
Significant progress has been made there. The head coach revealed that the club’s social media engagements had gone from 3,000 to around 40,000 in just over a year.
A permanent home
The Hawks are yet to find a permanent home.
They are currently on a 12-month agreement to play at Hay-a-Park, home to Knaresborough RUFC.
Prior to that, they shared a pitch with Harrogate Pythons.
There is currently a plot of unused land opposite Hay-A-Park, which still has the old rugby posts and clubhouse that Knaresborough used to play on.
The pitches opposite Hay-A-Park are currently abandoned and overgrown.
Gowland said that the club is in the process of trying to lease that land from the council on a long-term basis.
He said that this would allow the club to establish junior and women’s teams.
After a rocky first few years, Harrogate Hawks look to be improving each and every day. With Gowland as coach, many around the club are hopeful the upward trend will continue.
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