As we approach the festive period and half way point of the season I wanted to write to all members and friends of the club to reflect on the season to date, update you on some changes and dates for your diary, as well as wish you all well.

Christmas break and half season review
This week is the last week of activity before the New Year. Active Hockey, Back To Hockey and Senior Coaching has now finished. The last Youth Coaching is this Sunday (19th) and will be a Christmas fun day. There are only two senior fixtures this week; the Ladies 1st host Huddersfield on Tuesday (14th), 19:30 start and the Men’s 3rds are away against Sheffield Bankers on Saturday (18th) at 13:30. If you’re free and able to support either team please do so, it will be appreciated.

I have been fortunate enough to see all our senior teams play this season and it is fair to say there has certainly been a positive vibe amongst the teams which is credit to the team captains and all involved. Quality is improving as the season progresses and with that there has been some excellent results. In our men’s teams; the 1sts sit 2nd in their league and continue to push for promotion, the 2nds are 6th which after the loss of a few players is excellent progress and our 3rds are 4th which is their highest league position for some years. In the ladies’s teams; the 1sts are 5th having had a very strong season so far and the 2nds are 5th which is great considering the stop start nature of their league. Finally our development team continues to provide an outstanding platform for all our youngsters to grow into senior hockey and they currently sit 3rd.

Under Pete Hucknall leadership our men’s over 40’s returned and have progressed into the last 16 of their competition with the next round being on February 13th.

Our Youth teams are adapting to the new cup competition format introduced by England Hockey. The Under 16 Boys progressed through the EH Tier 2 plate and face Leek at home. Our Under 16 Girls progressed through the EH Tier 1 Plate and face Old Loughtonians away and our Under 14 Girls got through to the next round of their EH Tier 2 plate and face Timperley away. We wish them all well in the next round.

We’ve seen Danny Berry return in both a coaching and playing capacity which has been excellent for the development of our players. He has led the Academy sessions which has seen 22 players have more personalised coaching, one group in October 2020 and one in September 2021.

For the fist time this season we’ve also introduced specific goal keeper coaching run by Tony Cooper. The sessions are designed to work on correct technique and challenge our keepers. Feedback so far has been very good and the sessions will continue in the New Year.

Our partnership with the University has improved this season and I’m pleased to see our facilities looking better than ever. The pitch surface now receives regular maintenance, repairs to the stand, noticeboard and boot brush have been completed (finally) and following various stages of Covid we now have some normality with after game hospitality. We are aware of repair requirements to the car park fencing and the dug outs, which became dislodged (again) during high winds, the University are also aware of these and are planning the repairs. I’m also pleased to inform you that in the new year a defib machine will be permanently installed near the toilet block, whilst I hope we never need this it will be reassuring to have one so close to the pitch.

New Year
Our return to the pitch in the new year is as follows:

Active Hockey - Tuesday 11th Jan - 19:00-20:00
Back to Hockey - Wednesday 12th Jan - 19:00-20:00
Senior Coaching - Thursday 6th Jan - See times below
Senior Fixtures - Saturday 8th Jan - for some teams, others are on the 15th
Youth Coaching - Sunday 9th Jan - 10:00-12:00

Due to both attendance and feedback from senior coaching in the first half of the season and following a coaches meeting last week we need to inform all that attend senior coaching of a change to sessions and times effective from the New Year. Thursday evening sessions will be as follows:

Side A - 18:30-20:00 - Men’s club
Side B - 18:30-20:00 - Ladies 2nd team
Side A - 20:00 - 21:30 - Men’s 1st team - as requested, not booked every week
Side B - 20:00 - 21:30 - Ladies 1st team

The introduction of a specific slot for the Ladies 2nd team is as a result of low ladies numbers attending club coaching and feedback from a few players. We encourage all ladies 2nd team players to attend these sessions from the new year and will send out more information on this to relevant people before the first session back.

After careful consideration we have decided to not run an Academy in the new year. This not only allows the introduction of the slot for ladies 2nd team but it also means Head Coach Danny Berry can be involved with all sessions on a rota basis until the end of the season. We will run a new cohort of Academy sessions from September.

Social
I’m very pleased to announce that we have booked our first club social of 2021-22, an evening bowling in January (Covid allowing) . This event is open to all members and their families. It would be great to see as many faces as possible and make this a great club event to remember. See the website for more information.

We are also keen to start making arrangements for our end of season event and are seeking volunteers to plan and co-ordinate this. If anyone is willing to volunteer please let me know.

Volunteers
As with most of my newsletters I feel I must include a call for help as there are simply too few people doing too much at the moment. At our AGM in June we only successfully filled 17 roles, leaving 11 roles vacant. However, I’m pleased and grateful that following the AGM Danny Berry agreed to Head Coach, James Barnes volunteered for Umpire Co-ordinator, Nairne Clark/Maddie Clarke and Riley Ellis/Jacob Baggaley for Youth Player Reps and Katie Houghton for Senior Player Rep, leaving 6 roles still vacant today, I have summarised these below:

Sponsorship manager - a role I have done in the past. Essentially sending out letters to our past sponsors to see if they want to renew their package and sharing our sponsor pack to potential sponsors trying to grow the number we have. As I have not had chance to do this we have lost out on at least £1500 of funding to the club. There is no regular commitment required to this role it can just be ad-hoc.
Facilities and Equipment Manager - Ricky Benton, our fixture secretary has had to take on the Facilities part of this role as otherwise we would not have a pitch to use. This role requires around 1 hour per week. The equipment side of it s ad-hoc, simply requesting quotes as we have requirements.
Senior & Youth Treasurers - As neither are filled the workload has to be split between Matt Berry our club treasurer, team captains and youth volunteers, mainly Jackie Newbold and Sarah Ward. This role is around 1-2 hours per week.
Senior Player Representative (Male) - There is no regular duty to this role, it is intended to be someone that listens to player concerns, supports where necesaary and escalates to a member of the Management Committee where appropriate
Development Officer - This is arguably one of the most important roles in the club as it is key to us getting back to delivering coaching in schools which without we are at risk of not getting future generations of hockey players. Currently this predominantly falls to David Woodward who already does so much. It is difficult to summarise here what this role is here so if you think you can help please let David or I know.

Further to the above we only have two or three coaches regularly there on a Thursday evening and as such would greatly appreciate further support. This can be as much or as little as the person wants, leading sessions or supporting a lead coach, every week or on a rota basis.

Finally we do not currently have sufficient umpires to fulfil our fixtures. We’re extremely grateful to those that have supported when required but we need more people to step up. Whether that is going on an umpire course or supporting the lower teams as an unqualified umpire, we need you. We will reimburse anyone that umpires for us and are looking to run an umpire course early in the new year.

If you feel you can help with any of the above or would like more information please let me or any member of the management committee know as soon as possible. Or, if you are interested in any role for next season and would like to know more I'd be happy to discuss.

Conclusion
I want to take this opportunity to thank the many people that have supported the club in the first half of the season. I feel there is an excellent atmosphere within the club this season and hope that continues and grows in 2022.

It is not always easy or possible to keep everyone happy but all on the Management Committee are invested in doing the best we can. We recognise though that we may not always get things right so I encourage everyone to speak to us or one of the Player/Parent Reps if you have any concerns.

All that is left to say is have a great Christmas and a happy New Year. I sincerely hope all involved with RHC has a safe and enjoyable festive period.

Kind Regards,

James Thomas
Chairman
james.thomas@rotherhamhc.org.uk