Local hockey administrators target the young

DESPERATE to land a proper foothold in the local sporting landscape, the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) is eyeing a greater focus on the youth.

“In order for us to be competitive… we have to have our students playing hockey like they do cricket, football, netball and participate in track and field,” said the JHF’s vice-president of women’s affairs Nicole Grant-Brown at a recent Jamaica Observer Sports Club forum at the company’s Beechwood Avenue offices.Others from the JHF in attendance were president Leon Mitchell, vice-president of men’s affairs Richard Wisdom, director of international affairs and facilities manager Richard Shaw and general secretary Denise Wisdom.“We have introduced it a little bit to the prep schools… and there are some coaches in the primary schools who have introduced it there.“In every single sport, no matter where in the world you are, development starts from the base…from the babies, right up. In Argentina they have little ones, two-year-olds and three-year-olds (playing hockey), so in order for us to be competitive we have to start there,” Grant-Brown stressed.Richard Wisdom threw attention on the “need to get hockey taught at the PE (physical education) level” in schools, a thrust to “encourage girls to play the sport”, and a major aim of the JHF in guiding development “from the Under-14s and work upwards”.The JHF officials argued that introducing a downsized version of the sport similar to six-a-side football scrimmage could also spark more interest among young prospects.Grant-Brown cited lack of funding as a restrictive element to the development programmes outlined for the primary and secondary level. She said that of concern was the apparent disinterest shown by some girls.“We have been working on a programme to get more of the high schools involved in hockey because we find that for the women not many (are playing). There are some co-ed schools out there, but mostly the boys are playing.“Funding is always an issue… Development is always (dependent on funding),” she said.Wisdom added that recent moves by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) have widened the door for greater numbers to participate.“The schools have to be registered with ISSA to play high school hockey (but) ISSA has opened up a bit, so even if you are a private high school, just register and you can play all the competitions,” he said.Still, he explained that the cost of providing hockey gear as opposed to other sports is unfavourable.“Hockey is open to all schools under ISSA, but a major issue is the cost of equipment. You need a hockey stick for at least 11 players and one hockey stick ranges from $4,500 to $20,000… and there is goalkeeping equipment,” he said.In the meantime, Grant-Brown shared that students have scholarship opportunities — an option the JHF will be more actively advertising in a bid to mirror what takes place in Trinidad & Tobago and in Barbados.“We have scholarships here, but it is not visible and we have to push it out there. Once they are committed we are willing to work with them in order to garner scholarships. The last scholarship for someone in the United States was in 2002,” she said.However, the JFH administrators said the GC Foster College offers full local scholarships for student athletes, while the University of Technology provides part scholarships or grants.

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Local hockey administrators target the young

Hockey federation looks to improve coaching, umpiring

TO some it may seem strange that a template used over two decades ago could be the answer in 2013.

But to Nicole Grant-Brown, vice-president of women affairs at the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF), the methods used in the country’s past Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games triumph could be the guide to more success.She feels that a focus on the technical aspect and getting more competition for local players could result in a much-needed boost for the sport.“We have to look at how we are going to develop the base… We won CAC in 1990 and there are some things we had done that made us into champions. We may not go back to all the things, but we can pull from some of them. Players were competing a whole lot, so therefore, we have to ensure that now our players are playing a lot more.“What we also have to do now is to involve more coaches. We want to have all these people playing, so how is it that they are going to be coached? We have to develop more coaches,” she recently told the Jamaica Observer Sports Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters.Grant-Brown identified a partnership with the University of Technology (UTech) that could bear some fruit.“We are partners pretty much with UTech and they are very much interested in getting more involved in hockey. We want to have a coaching school, and they are ready to partner with us.”She, however, pointed to a massive obstacle that sits in the way of what the federation is trying to achieve. She explained that coaching graduates from GC Foster College inevitably stick to more lucrative sports.“There are coaches at GC Foster, but a lot of these coaches are not focused on hockey. They are going to focus more on the sport that will pay them. We don’t have that kind of funding, so you find that when they graduate from GC Foster they are going to coach football and track and field, and so on. So we have to give more incentive for them to do that (coach hockey),” said the women’s affairs vice-president.Richard Wisdom, vice-president of men’s affairs, said widening and improving the umpiring base, as well as increased attendance at overseas workshops, is another area that the federation has been targeting.He said that since many aspiring umpires are active players, these individuals are being forced to choose between the two.“A challenge for umpires is that they have to choose between playing and officiating because they cannot do both,” he said.Wisdom added that the JHF has been looking to “push persons to go to umpiring seminars so they can come back and impart some of that knowledge to the umpiring or the technical committee”.Also in attendance at the forum were JHF boss Leon Mitchell, director of international affairs and facilities manager Richard Shaw and general secretary Denise Wisdom.Nicole Grant-Brown (left), vice-president of women affairs at the JHF, makes a point to members of the Jamaica Observer Sports Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters recently. Looking on is Richard Wisdom, vice-president, men’s affairs at the JHF. (PHOTO: NAPHTALI JUNIOR)

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Hockey federation looks to improve coaching, umpiring

Hockey federation on track, says Mitchell

AFTER 18 months in charge of the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF), president Leon Mitchell, believes his organisation is on track to achieve their mandate.

“From where I sit, we are nearly there. We are basically on track in what we felt we were able to achieve,” Mitchell told the Jamaica Observer Sports Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters yesterday.With a mission statement to foster, encourage, develop, administer and play the game of hockey locally, regionally and internationally, the JHF is busy in trying to achieve those goals.A change of infrastructure, upgrading of the Mona facility and enticing more youngsters at school to fall in love with the sport are some of the issues on hand.“To be frank, we had planned the turf change last year but it got caught up with the 50th anniversary celebrations. So we were kind of sidetracked a little bit. Plus we made a conscious decision to go to Mexico which we did and that was within the first mandate,” noted Mitchell.“We are quite proud of the fact that we sent two teams, both boys and girls at the same time,” he continued.“My main mandate was to change the infrastructure and getting the facilities funding which I must confess was started by the previous administration,” said Mitchell, who took charge in 2011.“If you don’t have an infrastructure where we can accommodate international games, teams and (somewhere) comfortable and safe for all levels of persons who play hockey to come to, you start behind the eighth ball,” he argued.Plans are in the pipeline to upgrade the facility and have a world-class water-based turf installed for high quality-international competitions but that could cost between $20 million and $30 million.The astro turf at the Mona facility is said to be approximately 15 years old and Mitchell believes in order to attract top teams and to host international tournaments, the entire facility must be upgraded.Currently with a football field next door the astro turf, the venue is rented to offset the JHF’s expenses.Plans are afoot to have the facility rebranded by a potential sponsor or renamed in honour of a past player.“What we want to do is start the process of renaming the venue after some stalwart of hockey, or whether it be through a sponsored programme having a company come in,” Mitchell, who is the assistant general manager of Jamaica National Building Society, pointed out.“We also started the process with NWC in re-signing the lease and negotiation for the property with them and we are planning to get another 20-odd years,” he revealed.According to Mitchell, if all of this could be achieved before November, he would be very satisfied after taking over from Victor Tomlinson.“We like to say we put hockey back up there. Having a sport recognised internationally and the quality of hockey has improved significantly,” said Mitchell.“We are not eighth or ninth in the region, we are on par to get to fifth or fourth and that’s where we want to measure ourselves,” he added.“To get to that finish line we have to re-market, reposition hockey and we haven’t quite got there yet. We all need to come together as a team to better hockey,” he pleaded.“Whatever the challenges we have to overcome them as a unit. They did very well in the 90s in hockey and we need to get back to that same resurgence and deliver hockey to another level,” said Mitchell.Jamaica Hockey Federation president Leon Mitchell (left) makes a point at the Jamaica Observer Sports Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue offices yesterday. Also in the picture are vice-presidents Nicole Grant (centre) and Richard Wisdom. (PHOTO: NAPHTALI JUNIOR)

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Hockey federation on track, says Mitchell