25/26 Junior Awards

What can only be described as the best season in the clubs history for the junior section has just about come to an end. When you look back only a few seasons ago as Nic and I took the reins seeing the juniors training on half a pitch, to us now needing two pitches it is crazy. We have loads of the kids in the smart new kits looking the absolute business! This season there has been someone in every senior team who’ve started their journey into hockey as a junior at the club. That is pretty impressive and this coming season we see the largest number ever of juniors transitioning into senior squads with confidence.

I would like to express a huge gratitude to a couple of parents who have generously provided sponsorship towards the event today

Jamie Gibbins of Barwood land with his fantastic donation towards the trophies and medals. We are thrilled to have Hugo on board this season.

Steve Hicks of Hicks and Sons Building Contractors who has made a generous donation towards the event today. Steve not only plays himself but his son and his daughter Finlay and Evelyn rarely miss a session

Awards

Coach’s Player of the Season

Nominees: Ruan - Daisy - Arya - Harry

Most Improved Player of the Season

Nominees: Harriet - Indy - Teddy - Khairav

The U8s is about having fun. Introducing the youngest players to hockey. It is totally based around having fun. All the sessions are based on picking up the basics through fun games. A larger ball and a smaller pitch to try and get lots of touches of the ball. I have had the privilege of helping out at some sessions and have been blown away by the enthusiasm and great hockey I’ve seen. I’ve regularly come away and said.. Well that was bonkers, However what epic fun!! All I hear about from people after a tournament is how well they have done and the fun they have had! We are Incredibly lucky to not only have Mary as the Lead in this group but also Hitesh and Steve who on a Saturday up their game and play Mens 1s!! I think they’ve both had great performances when I’ve seen them – no doubt inspired from a Thursday night!!

From the very first session (bit of a shock planning for about 10 players, and nearly double that turning up) we have had incredible numbers at training, and have regularly had new players turn up and stay with us. Each and every one of the U8s has improved throughout the season, and it is a joy to coach them (although I’m still not sure how some of them have that much energy, that late on a Thursday). The Sunday morning tournaments have also been well supported, and many players have made their tournament debut this season, and it has been amazing to see those players grow in confidence, both during the tournament, but also throughout the season as a whole.

We have a number of the U8s group that will be moving up to U10s next season, I can’t wait to see how your hockey careers within the club progress. On a final note, thank you to Hits and Steve for their support throughout the season.

Mary Lilliman

Awards

Coach’s Player of the Season

Nominees: Ernie - Finlay - Abbie - Robert - Chloe

Most Improved Player of the Season

Nominees: Alfie - Cora - John - Skyla - John

As the kids move up into U10s we go to a larger pitch, 7 a side and a smaller ball. Lighter than a regulation ball. The Golden thread of U10s is still around fun. As it should be, but we now start to look a little more at some skills to hone. Try and stop so many back stick touches, looking to get the kids to use the whole pitch spreading out and passing to each other. As they develop in the age group we want to see less ‘honey pot play’ where the kids swarm after the ball like bees after honey.. We need them to see the value of team play. And also in this age group we see Goalkeepers in full size goals! Next season we will see a number of U8s move up and what was the smallest group will swell in size, I’m expecting big things from these guys next season!! 

This year the U10s were a smaller group than previous years, which isn't a bad thing! It gave us the opportunity to work with the children on a more 1 to 1 basis where required, with specific skills. We have given the kids an opportunity at Training to help pick their own warm up drills and Kicking the Cow is an absolute favourite. My highlights have been the Halloween and Christmas sessions, seeing them dressed up!

The last 20 mins of each session is usually game time, where they would play on a full size pitch (for their age) and under full rules (except short corners), to try and get them used to the what's required in the tournaments.

The kids have been an absolute joy to coach, and with the last few training sessions of the season we had next group of u10s come and train with us 😀 and even though we'll be sad to see some of the kids move up to the u12s we are already looking forward to next season with the u10s.

Kev Wigmore & Charlie Haswell

With the U12s we still need fun as a foundation but this is the age where we start to test the kids more. Early in the season Nic and I did lots of research and attended England Hockey forums about inclusion and participation. From that we decided it was best to group the girls all together. I am so glad we did that. The girls have flourished and have formed great friendships with each other. It has been amazing to see this develop. The boys we have tried to look at what they best need for individual development. Some of the lads may not have been playing for long and some have been playing for quite a while. So we have really tried to look at supporting their development in different ways. I feel we have got it right, give more help to some and they naturally develop and others give harder levels of challenge to.

Awards

Coach’s Player of the Season

Nominees: Thomas H - Nathan - Josh E - Graham - Olivia

Most Improved Player of the Season

Nominees: Herbie - Finley H - Sophie - Federico - Cora - Alfie - Della

So the mighty U12s, what a season and what a lot of them! Without a doubt, it took a little bit of time to settle down into the rhythm of things with both such a large group and such a range of experience. One of the nicest things this year is the number of players who joined us, some having come down after just one or two sessions at school. 

Halloween certainly brought out both the frightful and the downright disturbing, but was a highlight. Generally, the weather was pretty unkind but we pressed on through.

I want to express my thanks to the parents who have helped out most weeks, with a group this size it's been really helpfulto have the extra hands on deck. It really makes a difference being able to split down into small groups and have an adult with each. It's been wonderful to see the progress made by so many, from some playing their very first hockey to those who are a bit more advanced and starting to look towards senior hockey. Ultimately, we're there to play hockey, have some fun and be a family and I think it's been a great year. Thanks to you all. 

Dirk Vermaak

I also cannot leave this without giving a huge shoutout to the U12 boys who qualified for the regional tournament at Notts hockey centre. It was a tough day, however the resilience and team work of the boys absolutely blew Alex and I away. They were phenomenal and to play like they did against some of the biggest clubs in the region was epic. Not one of those boys put anything less than 100% effort in. It was the best team performance I have seen from them all year. It just clicked, and at times the hockey was sublime. We obviously all had a dark spot to the day when our very own Jenson C got struck on the head by a stick. I would like to say that many of the coaching team are first aid trained – something I feel strongly about and he was tended to within moment (I have never sprinted so fast!) The biggest thanks goes to Jules Vermaak (Alex’s Mum) who was there enjoying the weather supporting the boys and as a nurse showed zero hesitation in coming to help. It shows just what a fantastic support crew we have for the Juniors.

Awards

Coach’s Player of the Season

Nominees: Tilda H - Leni T - Benji W - William H

Most Improved Player of the Season

Nominees: Matthew K - Josie-May W - Neve H - Will M

At the start of the season Nic and I had convinced ourselves that we needed to do even more work for the club… Hence the U14s! The U14s are a new age group for the junior section, a few have played senior hockey this year and I must say… Have been pretty brilliant!! The U14s again can comprise of some new to the sport players and those who are chomping at the bit for competitive hockey who are just too young for seniors. We try and cater for all. The U14 games have been of a very high standard and whilst some of the results have been tough ones, it will do nothing but build the strength and resolve of these young people. That said, we have had some immense successes and some great victories. For the games we decided to join forces with our neighbours at Westleigh – hence ‘Charnleigh’ being born.. We acknowledge that whilst a lot of these young men and women will be playing senior hockey next season some of the players will not feel ready to be in teams of adult players, and that is understandable and a position we will fully support for them. This is why we feel the badgers are crucial for these players, providing an excellent way of full size hockey at a pace that they can still learn and develop. Seniors can wait.. They have the rest of their careers for that!

Girls

What was first to be thought of just a few games... turned out to be a whole season of Sunday games ! Not that we're complaining!

At first the girls struggled with a home game against Beeston. With not a lot of training together the 2x clubs fielded a team. The girls found it tough but showed effort and resilience. Despite the loss the Charnwood and Westleigh coaches thought we can make this 2 clubs merging work.

Next game was Sutton Coldfield in the cup, which they went on to win. I could bore you with the other fixtures but what we noticed was as the games went on the girls really started to gel and play as a team, it didn’t matter who your parent club is they played as one, and the other thing we noticed was that the second halves were often better as they got to grips with playing together as sometimes they had weeks between games.

One of my favourite memories from the season was losing at half time to Towcester away then scoring 5 in the second half to win 6-2. 

The girls are an amazing group, who played for each other, tried their hardest and were quite often the youngest team. Next season a lot of our girls can play again so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they get progress. 

Kev Wigmore

Boys

The boys of Charnwood, like the girls combined forces with Westleigh in what has been a heck of a first season. No doubt about it, we faced up to some pretty big teams, and often looked young by comparison. We had some tough games however I am fairly sure that the lads will have learnt a great deal from it. They say the road to success is paved with failure.. I would not say for a moment that there were ever any failures – but those tough to take results taught us a lot. For example – one game I do not think our GK touched the ball – we were in the Oppositions D for nearly the entire game as their GK had one of the most insane games I’ve ever seen. It finished 0-0!!! We could not get the ball in the net as they packed out the D. Teaches us a lot, what can we do next time…. The boys had some great wins too – Winning in the cup against a Rotherham team on Shuffles. From the PB we saw Rotherham throwing aerials and some top class play made the coaches look at each other and sigh… Thinking this is gonna be a lonnnng day. But the boys shifted through the gears and we won that game on shuffles. Boys you’ve been brilliant and next season will only get better.

Alex Vermaak

What is there to say about the Badgers? Well, its supposed to be a developmental squad guided by a wise and tactically astute adult, who moulds the play and helps the kids to learn tactics during the match. Turns out, they’re just fine. After the first 1 or 2 games it was evident that they could manage themselves without a sweaty shouty adult at the back. Those sides that we played against that did play one or 2 adults learnt that our Badgers were in fact not ordinary Badgers, they were Honey Badges, completely fearless, never backing down and working tirelessly to get a result, often making the feared lion, sorry adult, look overwhelmed and often, pretty average. Some of my favourite moments have been when the opposition´s adult came back on to help their side out and was repeatedly hassled and tackled by our defiant and brave pack of wild beasts.

And those results? Played 12, won 7, drew 3 and lost 2. Number of Badgers tested in battle with 21 boys and17 girls.

As the spectators will tell you, these are games worth watching, for the skills displayed, the team work shown and the sheer fun that is happening on the pitch. We were often playing before some of the Men´s teams and they often commented on how together the team looked and how much enjoyment was happening on the pitch.

I would like to thank all the players for making me surplus to requirement on the pitch and playing the way they do. The sportsmanship they show on the pitch is also exemplary, being fair but hard to their opposition and being respectful to umpires and their opposition at all times. They are a joy to coach and watch. Thank you Honey Badgers!!

To end with I would like to express heartfelt thanks to all the parents who’ve been so supportive throughout the season. Hearing you cheering on the sidelines has made me smile so much. You’ve said the warmest words and made us feel so proud. 

However I would like you all to give the greatest thanks to the coaches who are largely all here as volunteers and the young helpers. They give up their Thursday evenings and weekends. They turn out even when their kids aren’t there. They do it for your kids and the love of the game. Nic and I speak to each other every day about something to do with Juniors, the hard work that goes into running the section is huge. Keep the positivity high guys and please.. Update Teamo when requested 😊