The teams play in the Northern Area Junior Hockey Competition & Warringah Super 6 Competition which start on the weekend of the 15th March 2024

Registrations are now OPEN for the 2024 Turf Season - CLICK HERE 

During the season the draw and results will be available at: http://www.nahockey.org.au

We are fielding teams in the following grades for 2023:

• U18 - numbers permitting
• U16A Metro
• U16B
• U14A Metro
• U14B
• U12A/B
• U10A/B

We have an excellent list of coaches for teams in 2024. Who will be coaching each team will not been finalised until we confirm the final registrations. Parents who would like to assist with, or learn to coach are most welcoome. Please let me know if you'd like to do this.

We will require managers for the teams. This means being available on match day, sitting in the dugout with the team, managing the team lists, sending game notifications and collating results. It's quite fun and you don't need hockey knowledge. Please contact us if you are able to assist!

SQUADS

We love our sqaud system. There will be four sqauds - U10,U12,U14 & U16

Squads train together, there will be social activities organised within those groups and we will be staging some friendly fixtures for them during the year.

Playing:
All players in a squad will have an appointed team, but dependant on availability, suitability and timing, they should expect they can play up and across in other teams.

Social:
When it wasn't COVID-affected we had some great pizza parties and BBQs after the matches, particularly when teams were at the same venue or played each other. This year we will hope to do the same again.

Training:
Training during regular season will be as follows (subject to confirmation):

• U10-U12  Monday 4:30pm - 5:45pm  Narrabeen Sports Centre
• U14 Monday 5:30pm - 7pm Narrabeen Sports Centre
• U16 Monday 6:45pm - 8:15pm Narrabeen Sports Centre

While we have different gradings for teams, the players in the same age group ALWAYS train together. There is no privilege for the top team, no special tracksuits, no difference in coaching. This is best socially as and it raises the overall standard of training.

Squads

We will be appointing a parent in each age group as Age Group Coordinator. Their role will be to coordinate some of he above (with assistance of course). I'd welcome any volunteers who would like to take this on, or share the role. No hockey knowledge is required, but you need to be an experienced hockey-sideline-tragic who would be there at every game anyway.

TRAINING/TRIALS

*** 2024 Training & Trials will commence on Monday February 5th ***

The format will be much the same as every year previously: we will train, play some matches and create a relatively stress-free environment at the trainings.

People have asked about team selections - we have a very high exposure to all the players through club, rep & indoor - we use data from previous playing seasons, while also factoring in their improvement, current fitness and maturity when forming teams. We invite some independent selectors to attend in the training, we tend to use a variety of inputs rather than just a formal matrix of indexed skills and don't comprehensively rank the players as some other clubs do.

It's important to communicate that the following are just as important in our Club culture as playing ability:

• Attitude towards the team and coaches
• Training ethics and 'coachability'
• Attendance and timeliness
• Social aspects - playing with friends, confidence, enjoyment
• So does it matter if players do not attend the training and trials? Well, it isn't always a problem, but it is advisable to notify us. It's also good to have clear communication with us about the intentions or goals of the players.

Finally, parents should be careful about overlaying expectations or pressure onto the players. If they are disappointed with the original selection outcome the advice is to come and train with the squad, buckle-down, show hard work and determination and they will always 'bubble-up' to the right spot in the squad system. This is also true of the rep environment - some of the most succesful players were 'slow-burners' in he young age groups, but their good attitude and ethics have seen them thrive as they get older.