Hockey - Presidents Pre-Season Report

AEHC Hockey Season 2016-17   Picture left - Our O40s at the recent Masters tournament hosted by AEHC.   All, After a fantastic Olympic summer when our GB Ladies performed so brilliantly to bring home Gold, I just want to welcome you all, both current and new members, to the new season. As you know last season was superb for all sections; Juniors getting 3 sides to National Finals, Men’s getting 3 sides promoted including the 2nd team into North Div 1 and the Ladies had two sides promoted 3’s and 1’s, and the 1’s go into North Div 1 (highest level ever) and of course our Ladies 1st team also won the Trophy in a nail-biting series of shuffles at Olympic Park. Pre-season training and preparation is now done and league hockey starts this week-end for most of the Ladies section, with the Men’s sides and Ladies 1st team starting next week. In terms of sides this year we expect to have 7 Men’s teams plus 7 Ladies teams, 2 Badgers,1 Beavers anda Vixens team (U13 girls), all playing on a Saturday – 18 teams! As I’m sure you’re aware the success of our club is very dependent upon our fantastic volunteers who coach, manage, umpire and generally help in getting things done to a very high standard. Our steady success and continuing growth in numbers means we always need more VOLUNTEERS ! There is an open invitation to any of our members or parents who want to get more involved to come and talk to myself or any of the Executive. Specifically we need additional Umpires and Coaches; the more who volunteer the more we can spread the load. The club supports newcomers to both of these activities financially and with training, so why not give it a go? To help develop and support our coaching base and player development to an even higher level I am delighted to announce the appointment of Amanda Partington as Head Coach for AEHC. Amanda is well known to many in the club but as a Level 4 Coach with Men’s Premier League and Ladies International experience plus having “written the book” for kids hockey ie:Quicksticks, she is an ideal choice. However, for clarity, this does not affect John Bell’s responsibility for our Ladies 1st team and he will continue the excellent work he does for the club which is greatly appreciated. We have had a busy summer where we have continued Sunday morning Junior training sessions, RUSH hockey,Ladies Back to Hockey, "Top Up Techniques" training sessions, Summer Leagues and social matches. We have also had two more successful Hockey Camps organized by Kelvin Briggs. Finally last week-end we had our 4th Veterans Festival at the Edge over Sat and Sun morning which wasa great success despite the rain! We have a start of season Social events at the clubhouse next week-end; Friday 16th for the Juniors and Sat 17th for the Ladies and Men. Please come along and support these. I think that’s enough for now except for me to wish you ALL, a very successful, enjoyable and healthy season!   Graham Bryant President AEHC