The new season is nearly upon us, so we thought it would be a good a good idea to bring you up to speed with our plans for this coming year at Newark Hockey Club Academy. There is quite a lot! As many of you know we said ‘Happy Retirement’ to Tim Burch, who had been the Head of Newark hockey club junior section for over 20 years. Tim enjoyed a fine send off and was delighted with the very generous gift we presented to him at the end of season awards ceremony in April. Thank you again to those of you who contributed so generously. Tim plans to pop down from time to time and help us with coaching, for which we are very grateful. In recognition of Tim’s contribution to the entire club he has been appointed Club President.
I now have the daunting task of following in Tim’s footsteps! Tim and the team of fantastic coaches, have created something very special on Sundays at Newark Hockey Club and I will do my very best to nurture this. Yes, we like to win matches, but we also judge success on lots of happy young hockey players who love the game as much as we do!
Dates for your diary: Sunday morning Coaching: Sunday 10th September – Sunday 17th December Sunday 7th January – Sunday 29th April (end of season presentation) Sunday 12th November(TBC) -Children in Need fancy dress tournament A provisional list of match fixtures will be emailed out when available -see later.
Academy Coaching Sessions: 09:00-10:30* U16s mixed (School Years 10&11) U14 Boys (School Years 8&9) U14 Girls (School Years 8&9) 10:30-12:00* U12 Boys (School Years 6&7) U12 Girls (School Years 6&7) U10 Otters mixed (School year 5 and invited year 4 players) U10 Herons mixed (School year 4 and invited year 3 players) Goal Keepers 10:30-11:30* U8’s mixed (school years 1-3) *NB Between 07/01/18 and 18/02/18 , coaching sessions will start and finish one hour later, to enable the pitch to defrost.
Academy Subscriptions & Membership Registration The club subscription fees for under 18s remain the same as last year and the year before – please see below. Your subscription fees cover the cost of pitch hire, equipment, insurance, coaching courses and a whole bunch of other things. Full Season (September – April): £80.00 This can be one payment in September, or two payments of £40 in September and January. Family Discount of 20%: £64.00 (two, or more family members) One payment in September. Pay as you play: £4.00 per week However you choose to pay, ALL MEMBERS MUST COMPLETE THE SHORT REGISTRATION FORM ONLINE at www.newarkhockeyclub.com. The new season form will be ready from start September. Paper copies will be available from the sign-in desk during September. Please make sure the contact numbers and email addresses on the registration form are parents/guardians. If you have any problems with registration, please let Amanda or me know. For those players who are selected to play for Badgers, we ask for £5 match tax for home games to cover the additional pitch hire and post-match refreshment costs.
Teamer We would be grateful if you can sign up to Teamer and choose your (i.e. parent) mobile phone number as a means of contact. Teamer is an easy way for us to confirm player availability for matches and it also enables us to access your mobile number should we need to contact you urgently. If enough people are on Teamer we may use is as a way to contact you if training needs be cancelled due to bad weather (see later). If you have any questions regarding Teamer, please let Amanda or me know and we will try to help.
Kit & Gear ALL players under 18 years must wear gum shields and shin pads during coaching sessions and matches. The club are endorsing a zero-tolerance policy regarding gum shields. If you are comfortable for your child not to wear a gum shield, please email me to confirm this. Otherwise, no gum shield - no hockey. We know some players struggle with fitting gum shields, but trimming the shield to make it a little shorter sometimes helps. Forgotten shin pads are easier to sort, as we always have spare ones to lend. Please make sure players attend coaching sessions with a drink and warm clothes (and waterproofs). Horse riding gloves with rubber bobbles on the palms are perfect for hockey in the winter and are relatively inexpensive. (Mole Country Stores sell these). You can purchase club hoodies, tracksuit bottoms etc. from Mad Dog Sports. There is a link on the club website home page. Mad Dog Sports will be selling equipment and taking orders at the first coaching session on 10th September
Bad Weather Arrangements There are often occasions during winter when parts, or all, of the pitch is unplayable. If we can, we will still run a training session. Some of the session may be indoors in the big gym and we may combine this with low intensity outdoor training on the areas of the pitch which are deemed safe. If the weather looks frosty, please send your child to us in plenty of layers, so they can adapt to suit indoor and outdoor conditions! If the conditions are too wet we may also decide to take coaching inside. To give the pitch time to defrost and to enable us to give you as much warning as possible should training need to be cancelled, we have decided to move coaching sessions back by one hour during January and the first half of February. Therefore, from 7th January to 18th February, the coaching sessions will be 10.00-11.30am (U16s & U14s) and 11.30am-1.00pm (U12s, U10s, GKs) and 11.30am- 12.30pm for U8s. We will remind you of this nearer the time. If we need to cancel coaching, then we will take the following actions to let you know:- 1. Teamer team talk – it helps if your mobile phone is the Teamer contact 2. Alert on club webpage 3. Mass group text message (if possible) We will try to inform you of cancellations by 9.00am, as we cannot access the pitch before 8.45am.
Club Welfare Officers We take safe-guarding very seriously across all areas of the club. Our welfare officers are Ben Eagles and Laura Donaldson. Several of our coaches (me included) have received safeguarding training. Laura and Ben will be attending Sunday morning coaching from time to time and will we make sure the players get introduced to them.
How you can become more involved? The smooth running of the club is completely reliant on volunteers. All our coaches and helpers are volunteers and we are very grateful to the commitment they give to the club. If you feel you would like to become more involved in the club, here are some of the ways you can do this:- Team Managers We have seven junior teams all competing in different leagues and tournaments. A team manager’s role is to liaise between coaches and parents to check player availability and confirm match times etc. I will still be responsible for organising the fixtures and pitches with the other clubs. Of course we would ensure you are the team manager for the team your child plays for. Administration and refreshments Perhaps you can spare some time each week to sign-in players and collect money as they arrive for their coaching sessions. Or maybe you are able to help with the refreshments on an occasional Sunday, enabling additional funds to be raised for the club and ensuring our coaches are supplied with teas and coffees. Coaching Many of our parents play, or have played, hockey and we are always looking to increase or pool of coaches. We are lucky to have dedicated coaches who will plan and lead coaching sessions, but the sessions are easier to run if there are others helping to supervise activities. If you are interested in coaching, the club will pay for you to attend any necessary coaching courses and we will undertake all the necessary DBS checks. We also actively encourage our U16 and U14 players to help with our younger players. This is a great opportunity to hone life-long skills. We understand it is daunting to commit to every week, but if you feel you can be available for most Sundays, then please contact me to find out more. Umpires Players and ex-players are encouraged to get involved in umpiring. Junior games offer lots of opportunities to build your confidence in umpiring. Once you feel you are competent and willing to umpire competitive 11-a-side matches, the club will support you to complete your umpiring qualifications. Sponsorship We have been very fortunate in the past to receive sponsorship for a variety of things, such as club playing shirts and coaches jackets. This season, CCI Hospitality Recruitment have sponsored the new green shirts for our U10 and U12 girls. Many thanks to Sandeep Thandi-Radley. We have a broad spectrum of sponsorship opportunities, so please talk to me if you would like more information. Competitive Matches There are more competitive matches than ever before planned for this season. President Tim has managed to convince the other NoDe clubs to come into line with England Hockey competition age groups. There are now three NoDe age groups – U10s, U12s and U14s. This is in line with our coaching groups and means our players will be final playing against children their own age. Once we have the fixtures confirmed I will share them with you. For our players who are on the cusp of senior hockey, we will continue with our involvement in the Lincolnshire Badgers hockey league (which we won last year!). I have also set up a Nottinghamshire Badgers League, so we have doubled the number of Badgers matches this coming season. As you can imagine the organisation of player availability for all these fixtures (almost forty in total) can take me quite a lot of time, so help from parent volunteers would be greatly appreciated. And finally….. …. your feedback and your child’s feedback is really important to us. We always try to do our best to ensure we have a supportive and engaging club where all feel welcomed and valued. If you want to share any thoughts on what we are doing well and how we can be even better, let me know. We look forward to seeing you all on September 10th!
Warm regards, Ann Crockett- Ann Crockett-McLean Newark Hockey Club Academy (07776 161573)
