In a very exciting development for the Gippsland hockey community and Hockey Victoria (HV), for the first time ever HV will offer local development opportunities for regional junior players under the banner of HV’s highly successful Academy Program.
Over the past six months, Hockey Victoria have been working with the three local Hockey Associations (West Gippsland HA, Latrobe Valley HA and East Gippsland HA) and Gippsland Bulls Hockey Club on streamlining the junior pathway in the region. The key part of the new junior pathway (view the pathway HERE) will be the new Gippsland Bulls Regional Development Program, which will be based on the same coaching principles and development outcomes as the HV’s Academy program offered in Metropolitan Melbourne.
The new 10-week program will be delivered from November 2018 to March 2019. Seven of the 10 sessions will be skill-based and delivered at the local level in Drouin, Churchill and Sale, drastically reducing the travel costs for the participants. The three match days will be delivered at each of the three venues once during the program, meaning that participants will only travel out of their local area twice for match days, which is when all participants come together. The Program will be offered to U11, U13, and U15 age groups initially, with the view to expand the program from next year. It is envisaged that the Program will enhance the Junior State Championships and Junior Country Championships selection process at the zone and the Association level.
Apart from junior player development benefits, local coaches and umpires are set to benefit through the new program too. HV High Performance team will train up and mentor 9 local coaches, who will then deliver the local sessions. The Head Coach will also be appointed and will ideally have a strong link to the Gippsland Bulls Hockey Club, who are expected to take on a greater role in developing hockey in the whole region. HV will work with all three Associations to train up local people who can deliver coaching & umpiring courses, increasing the ability of the Associations to upskill people.
Lachlan Anderson, HV General Manager – Technical Performance, was very enthusiastic about the opportunity to expand the Academy Program regionally.
“This is a great opportunity to provide previously unavailable development opportunities to the talented kids in the Gippsland region, hopefully paving the way for some of them to reach the State Teams in the very near future," Anderson said.
More information will be available in June with the registrations expected to open in July.
To register, contact Hockey Victoria.
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