Waikirikiri Hockey Club’s continuous efforts to grow earn them 2019 Club of the Year
With Covid-19 halting the Annual Hockey New Zealand Awards Dinner back in April, we would like to highlight the winners of those awards for their outstanding contribution to the game of hockey. The first recognition is the 2019 Club of the Year, Waikirikiri Hockey.
Waikirikiri Hockey Club is the youngest club in the Canterbury Hockey Association with their creation and involvement in local competitions commencing in 2017, before becoming a fully affiliated club in 2018. In 2019, the club fielded a total of 22 teams with 14x junior 6 a-side teams, 4x junior 11 a-side teams, 2x youth teams and 2x open grade teams.
Continuous work on club management
Waikirikiri Hockey Club worked on their Club Management throughout 2019 and have ensured they plan for success by creating a strategic plan, reallocating a number of the committee roles and responsibilities to better distribute volunteer workloads, implementing a three-tier sponsorship system and creating a new policies and procedures manual.
The club has also ensured that their volunteers were both supported and recognised throughout 2019. They created a club-based service award for volunteers who have provided three years of service and have recognised all volunteers at their prize giving and social functions.
Development is a priority
The club has made development a key priority for their coaches and umpires, supporting development opportunities in numerous ways such as encouraging their coaches to attend at least one coach development opportunity run by Canterbury Hockey. In addition to this, they conducted a season review and have since put together a working group to create a club-based coaching framework.
They have also put further emphasis on Police Vetting and Child and Youth protection by aligning to Canterbury Hockey policies and getting a majority of their coaches and managers vetted.
In the umpiring space, they are currently creating an umpire development plan that aligns to their coaching framework and has supported a range of their junior/youth umpires to attend Canterbury Hockey run development opportunities. They have also supported their umpiring members by providing mentors during both the winter season and summer hockey competitions.
More opportunities for their community
Waikirikiri have a strong focus on delivering a wide range of participation opportunities and initiatives, such as Small Sticks in schools and Have-a-Go activities into local primary and secondary schools. The club has also worked hard to ensure they further develop the hockey experience for their members by offering additional training opportunities, providing both social and competitive experiences and offering a variety of off-field functions for their members with events like their 5 a-side social hockey competition for a range of age groups during the offseason.
Actively promoting health and wellness
Members wellbeing is also at the heart of the clubs’ off-field activities, actively promoting health and wellness issues, keeping and reviewing injury records and implementing their health and safety policy. They also completed a review and update of the club’s code of conduct which covers players, coaches/managers, umpires, committee members and supporters expectations when representing the club.
The club is actively promoted via newsletters and social media platforms and they have also developed a strong relationship with a range of local schools and have an official partnership with Lincoln University.
All of this work has been going on in the background to ensure they are sustainable. It’s really no surprise that they’ve had tremendous, consistent growth since they began in 2017.
Congratulations, Waikirikiri Hockey Club!