Changes to U8 and U10 competitions for the 2017 hockey season
The West Gippsland Hockey Association (WGHA) has made changes to the U8 and U10 competitions for this coming season. Rather than relying upon the individual WGHA clubs to provide players and the many necessary volunteers to run these competitions, they will be centralised and run by the WGHA as a whole.
Practices and matches for both the U8 and U10 competitions will be held on Friday nights in 2017. From 4:30 to 5:40 all U8 players will practice learning basic hockey skills together under the guidance of an experienced coach, prior to being split into their respective teams for matches.
From 5:40 to 7:00 all U10 players will similarly practice and have matches.
The program will begin on 17 March and continue weekly with breaks for school holidays for the season. The first 3 weeks will be used as grading sessions so that the players may be divided into teams of equal ability to compete in the season-long competition.
Note: the Teams will not be affiliated with any existing WGHA club, and will have unique uniforms and names.
The traditional club-based format for competition will be continued in the U12 competition and above.
For our youngest players the WGHA believes there are two significant concerns inherent to the previous format of a club-based competition. Firstly, the quality of instruction for these young players is variable and is not sufficient in quality for their needs.
Secondly, matches are too often one-sided due to differences in number and ability-level of players. These difficulties are remedied in the new structure. The structure will also lessen the time demands on club volunteers and will better ensure equality in participation time by all players.
The WGHA committee is quite excited with this new format for our young juniors. Much energy and expertise is being directed towards its development, under the overall direction of the Junior Development Committee. You may notice a concerted advertising campaign in the coming weeks under the heading “GAME ON”.
We hope the turn-out on 17 March will be commensurate with the quality of instruction, coaching and organisation that we know will be delivered.
WGHA Junior Development Committee. developmentofficer@wgha.asn.au