New Season Information

Welcome to the 2023/2024 season! Our website has been updated with all the relevant information, including details of training times, locations, managers and coaches. There is also lots of information about our philosophy, culture and opportunities for our junior members, and is therefore well worth a read.

Please pay particular attention to our junior section culture, which we introduced last season and will be looking to reinforce this year. Your manager will give you more information specific to your group.

New Player & Parent Inductions

We will be holding an online induction meeting on Monday 18th September at 7pm. Details will be distributed via your age group manager.

Get involved!

We are always looking for volunteers to get involved in various areas of the junior section. If you are interested in helping with a specific age group please let your manager know. If you would like to be part of our junior section management team, please email me - I would be very pleased to hear from you!

Talent Centre Accreditation

We are hopeful that there will be news on this in the next few weeks - watch this space!

Tim Lander, Junior Chairperson

Club Day

We will kick off the 2023/24 juniors’ hockey season with the annual and very popular Junior Club Day on Sunday 10th September, from 10.30am. Please bring a picnic, as well as fun sessions of training and matches for each age group, there will be fundraising games, activities and hockey challenges… book your tickets on Teamo now!

Representative News

A huge congratulations to all the juniors playing for representative teams in high profile competitions over the summer.

Will L, Amelie N and Amelia W were selected to represent the South Coast Talent Academy in the TA festival in Nottingham.

Shayan S and Will V represented South Saxons in the U13 UK Lions Regional Tournament. In the boys’ section there were two Saxons teams; both topped their groups unbeaten so met in the final with Saxons South beating south Saxons 2-1 with a last minute goal - very exciting! An amazing weekend for the boys and parents alike.

Lara J, Freya P and Ottilie M represented the girls in the South Saxons U13 UK Lions Regional Tournament. Both girls’ teams medalled with Lara’s team coming second and Freya & Ottie’s third.

Many of our players have completed the Hampshire Development Centre programme. We have nine players under assessment for the 2023-24 Talent Academy and a further 41 invited to assessment for the Hampshire AC.

WHC Alumni

Our warmest congratulations also go to Will and Rory Penrose, ex WHC juniors who played from U8 through to U16 level, who many will recognise from as coaches from the clubs’ summer camps. Over the summer the brothers competed in an international fixture, playing on opposite sides; Rory (aged 20) played in defence for England U21s and Will (aged 22) played in midfield for the Wales development side. It was an entertaining and hard fought game with England eventually winning 4-2.

Rory is now heading off Germany to represent England against Spain, Germany and India and Will is heading back to Belgium where he is planning to spend the next two years playing for Leuven in the Belgium league.

Junior Ambassador Programme

We have launched a new programme aimed at developing non-playing hockey skills in our juniors (aged 14+). This will include introductions to coaching, umpiring and providing the many administrative support functions needed by an organisation such as our hockey club. The programme will have two aims: encourage our juniors to participate in the running of the club, and help them to develop leadership skills that will be valuable to them now and in the future. More information is available here.

U12 Girls Repton Cup Winners!

In July, after an amazing season for the Winchester U12s, the girls finished off the season in style winning the Repton Cup, an invitational weekend-long tournament against some of the best hockey clubs in the country.

A strong performance (4 wins and 1 loss) placed the Winchester girls top of the pool table, competing for a spot in the final against Marlow HC. It was a hugely competitive end-to-end game; Marlow took an early lead but the Winchester girls showed great spirit to battle back with an equaliser soon after from Aggie H. The defence held firm with a barrage of Marlow short corners and then in the final minutes of the match Zoe J came up trumps with a winning Winchester goal. 2 - 1 and Winchester were Repton Cup Champions - well done to the nine determined, resilient and talented players, Venne B, Zoe J, Aggie H, Ella R, Emily K, Alice W, Poppy W, Violet L and Lara J.

Junior Section Feedback Questionnaire

Over the summer we invited junior members to offer their views on their experiences last season. We had 58 respondents; most of the feedback was positive, although there were a few issues raised that we will work to improve this season.

We have summarised the issues raised and our response below.

If you have any concerns or suggestions about how we can improve our club, please email our Junior Chairman, Tim Lander.

Lack of U18 boys weekly training session: we do not believe that there is a critical mass for a stand alone U18 boys training session, but for 2023-24 season the U18 boys will be invited to attend U16 boys training

Split of abilities within age groups, with a greater focus given to more experienced players: our aim is to provide opportunities to all children, regardless of experience and their personal reasons for playing (talent development or participation). This can be a difficult balance to strike and relies on each group having sufficient volunteers to cover all sub-groups of players, but this is the stated aim of each age group and the club as a whole.
Behaviour of players towards each other and the coaches: our aim is to encourage strong team spirit within each group, avoiding any cliques or disruptive behaviour. We have recently introduced a junior section culture which we will continue to roll out during 2023-24. Each age group will hold an induction session for their players to reinforce expectations.
Lack of indoor opportunities: this is frustrating, and is caused by the lack of suitable and available indoor facilities. Our coaches are enthusiastic about expanding opportunities if a facility can be secured.
Communication: we have reminded managers to communicate details of matches and events in good time.

The following are issues related specifically to the TDG programme:

Grouping of age groups and abilities: we always aim to group players with others of a similar experience and ability. During the summer term, the timing of each group’s training was determined by the availability of the most suitable coach. The numbers enrolling for each age group varied significantly. As this was unexpected, we ended up with a couple of groups that were too small for a viable training session and had to combine them. We will use this experience when planning next summer's programme.
Experience of assistant coaches: we aim to include a combination of older and younger assistant coaches so that we have enough experience to deliver quality sessions, and are continually training new coaches for future years. Our new Junior Ambassador Programme formalises the training of our young coaches so that they can contribute to quality TDG sessions.
Termly commitment: we need an idea of player numbers so that we can plan pitch capacity, coach numbers and a viable financial budget. It is therefore not possible to run TDG on a pay-as-you-play basis.