Onwards and upwards for UJ Youth Hockey Club
MELVILLE – Local youth hockey club keeps growing.
The University of Johannesbug (UJ) Youth Hockey Club celebrated the end of another good season of growth in players and skill.
The club caters for children from U5 to U17 level and practices are held at the UJ hockey astro and the UJ Orban hockey field in Melville.
Manager of UJ hockey, Elize le Roux said the club had been around for 12 years, approaching local schools to recruit players for its teams and also developing young players from scratch.
However, the past three years have seen growth and the club now boasts 110 players.
Furthermore, the club is also starting to see greater success in the leagues. The club’s U13 boys and girls teams each finished fourth in the South Gauteng Junior Hockey League.
These teams were also invited to compete at the Southern Gauteng Hockey Champs of Champs tournament at Randburg Hockey Stadium on 28 July.
The club could not send a girls team to this tournament last year as there were too few U13 players. Hence, it was an achievement that this less-experienced side managed to finish fifth out of 11 girls teams.
The boys also did very well to progress out of the group stage and win a playoff match to finish third in the tournament out of 10 teams. This is an improvement from their fourth finish last year.
“I am happy with how we did at the Champs of Champs,” Le Roux said.
“We seemed to be more focused than we were last year, maybe because of all the competitions we have played. Our club seems to grow every year at the primary school level.”
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