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woking hockey club from the surrounding areas training with us and a few even host their AGM and end of season events at our clubhouse. Over the course of the season we have lots of schools training or playing their hockey on our pitches. Our biggest challenge is to increase hockey in the state schools where hockey is not always played or they don’t have any teachers who are able to coach. We offer our pitches to any school wanting space to train and host a Secondary schools training tournament each year as well as the local Quicksticks Primary Schools tournament.” Challenges “The biggest challenge for us as a club is that there is always so much more that we could do! We would love to assist with coaching within the state schools, provide more hockey playing options such as a midweek league but as always this comes down to funding, pitch and coach availability. Hockey is becoming more and more professional in its nature, there is a need for quality coaching which comes at a cost, facilities need to be top notch but to keep the membership costs down we need more and more volunteers – this comes at a time when jobs are more demanding and therefore generally people have less time. However, that said, it is an exciting time for hockey. The profile is much higher and the successes of the England and Great Britain sides are helping the perception of a sport which can compete with football, rugby and netball as a sport of choice.” Ambitions “Over the coming years we will be working on quality - our facilities, our coaching programme, holiday courses, leadership and club policies. There is always something to be done to keep us current. With regards to playing, we are continuing to push towards National League status at the same time keeping hockey available for everyone – not much to do there then! As a club, we have never had a co-ordinated sponsorship programme and this is my main aim for next season. We will be producing a quarterly club magazine where I will be looking for advertising and would encourage anyone interested in the opportunities available to get in touch.” www.sportip.biz 39