Hockey Development Programme hosts festival for girls in Melville

Schoolgirls got to celebrate Women’s Day with a hockey festival organised especially for them at the University of Johannesburg Melville Orban field.

The Hockey Development Programme is co-run by Southern Gauteng Hockey Association, the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, South African Hockey Association and the University of Johannesburg.

It is sponsored by SPAR.

The programme regularly gets under-resourced clubs from disadvantaged areas together for mini-games, coaching and drills at its Melville, Randburg, University of Pretoria and Soshanguve venues.

A festival was held for the boys on Youth Day, so now it was the girls’ turn.

Thirteen clubs from across the province fielded U14 and U17 teams at the festival, ensuring the grounds were packed with 400 players.

When teams were not playing, coaches kept their players busy doing drills to hone their hockey skills.

“We are elevating hockey clubs all over Gauteng,” said Mervyn Mooi, a committee member of Gauteng Hockey Development. “Most of these clubs play in informal leagues in their areas so we have hosted festivals for them twice each year for four years.”

He said the programme had been very successful lately and sent a record 46 development players to provincial trials this year, of which 11 were selected for Gauteng teams.

Elize le Roux, the University of Johannesburg’s hockey manager, is also on the programme’s committee. She said youth hockey was growing in South Africa and giving youngsters from disadvantaged areas opportunities to play had only helped.

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