Sheffield Hockey Club

Sheffield Hockey Club organised the biggest schools hockey tournament Sheffield has seen in decades at Abbeydale Sports Club on the 27th of March with thanks to funding from South Yorkshire Sport. 18 teams participated in the tournament from King Ecgberts, Tapton, Birkdale, Sheffield High School, Handsworth, Newfield and Eccesfield showing the strength of the Forge schools partnership and the hard work that Karen Leavers has done to bring the schools together.

The format of the tournament included two Key stage 3 and one Key stage 4 leagues. Matches lasted 8 minutes one way and were mixed 7 a-sides on a quarter of the pitch. It was great to see Newfield and Handsworth schools competing in their first ever competitive tournament following the Sportivate coaching delivered by Sheffield Hockey Club. Interest in the sport has increased following the program and has continued within the school showing that a legacy of hockey has been left.

 Congratulations must go to the winners and the runners up in each league, although all of the leagues were very close showing that the standard of hockey in Sheffield is high. Final Standings are shown below.

Each of the schools ran a program to attract players.

King Ecgberts

King Ecgberts program was run after school and had large numbers consistently throughout the 6 weeks. A collection of the participants came along to the club as well showing the link between the school and club. Thanks to Mark Dolan who organised 3 teams for the tournament, with King Ecgberts 2 winning their key stage 3 league.

"I would just like to say thank you for what was a wonderful tournament just before the Easter break. I t was extremely well run and was so great to see so many schools and different age ranges playing the game all at once. Our pupils' had a great time and were all very pleased with themselves having taken part in the festival. So a big thankyou to yourself and everyone involved with the club." Regards, Mark Dolan, PE Teacher, King Ecgbert School

 Tapton School

Tapton School sessions were run before school and had the largest amount of participants over both key stage 3 and 4 showing that hockey has huge support at the school through the continued work of Helen Hilton who managed to get 4 teams to the tournament. Congratulations to Tapton 2 who were runners up in the key stage 3 league.

Birkdale

Birkdale sessions took place after school on Friday afternoons at Goodwin which could be classed as the territory of a local rival but as development continues it increasingly removes any barriers in participation and we can now look at the whole of Sheffield as the grassroots for Sheffield HC.

"Can I thank you both for the time you have spent helping with our hockey the past few weeks. It is very much appreciated." Mr Brook, Birkdale Senior School.

Sheffield High School

Sheffield High School successfully entered 3 teams thanks to Charlotte Smith after the program being delivered at lunch times over two days a week for key stage 3 and key stage 4. Congratulations to Sheffield High School 1 team who won their key stage 3 league. 

Handsworth

Handsworth had lunch time sessions with a small group, who had previously not played hockey before. Since the end of the program hockey has grown and is continued at lunch times and is now being added to the school curriculum, demonstrating the huge success of the program. The tournament was the first competitive hockey fixture the school has ever had so congratulations to Jo Robinson and Karen Leavers for all their hard work in getting 2 teams participating. 

"Thanks very much for all the hard work you have put into the Hockey programme at Handsworth Grange.  The pupils have really enjoyed it and feedback from last nights tournament was excellent, although they were slightly disappointed that they didn't manage to win a match!!Thanks again Simon, I hope there will be further opportunities for us to work with you again soon." Regards, Jo Robinson, Participation & Engagement Officer, Forge School Sport Partnership

Newfield

Newfield School ran a small session after school for the program which was successful in increasing junior members of the club as participants came along the Sheffield Club training sessions, which saw the rate of improvement increase hugely having never picked up a stick before the program was introduced. Congratulations to Alison Hill for organising the first ever competitive hockey fixture for the school, hopefully it will lead on to many more. 

Ecclesfield

Eccesfield Schools partnership began through the link with Sheffield Hallam University hosting a primary schools tournament at the school and the SSCo Jenna Taylor was keen to create a new link with Sheffield Hockey Club and entered a team into the tournament without any previous coaching being delivered. This link has allowed potential plans for a program to be run within the school to strength the link further. Congratulations to the Key stage 4 team that were runners up in their league. 

Sheffield Hockey Club has seen an increase in junior members since the program with Children participating coming along to junior training and beginning to work their way into the clubs teams competing on a more regular basis throughout the season. A handful of players have begun to make the transition from junior hockey to senior hockey following the increased amount of training and playing. 

The club has now begun planning next years tournament with the aim of making it even bigger than this years with more schools competing and even more teams being entered per school. Congratulations to Helen Hilton at Tapton School for successfully entering 4 teams, with the potential for a 5th team being entered into next year's event. 

Thanks must go to the club members who came down to support the event and helped with organising, running and umpiring. Thank you to James Bateman, Adursh Ruperelli, Charlotte White, Chris Battison, Will Sides and Ed Sides for making the event so successful. 

We must also thank the Sportivate funding that enabled the whole project to go ahead and look forward to working more closely with South Yorkshire Sport in the future. Without the funding coaches from the club would not have been able to deliver coaching sessions within many of the school that took part in this record breaking tournament. 

Sheffield HC plan to repeat the success of this project next year when Sportivate funding becomes available in May 2012.