OLD SILHILLIANS’ HOCKEY CLUB
www.silshockey.co.uk
CLUB
MEMORIAL CLUBHOUSE & GROUND
Warwick Road
Knowle
Solihull
West Midlands
B93 9LW
Dear Parent,
Apologies for the length of the letter below, but the information is important to the development
of your child's hockey, so please read.
I am writing to you as the club has decided to nominate/recommend your son or daughter to
attend the Warwickshire Hockey run Junior Development Centres for this season. Some of you will
have attended these before, and for those of you that have, please just take this as a gentle
reminder that the Centres are starting up again this weekend. For those of you who have not been
before, please see details below of what these are all about.
Firstly, the main place to get information is from the County
website www.warwickshirehockey.co.uk - the County set-up is run by a very small number of
individuals, and hence most, if not all, of the information communicated by the County is done via
this website, and requires parents/players to be pro-active about getting the information
themselves by visiting the website regularly - you will not always be sent information, so don't sit
back and wait!
So, what are Junior Development Centres?
They are similar to "Borough" training squads, and feed into the larger County structure, with
Centres based in Solihull, Coventry, South Birmingham, Warwick and Rugby, with all centres
running the same delivery and leading through to the same player pathway.
(Please note, other counties also run Centres, and the choice of centre that a player attends should
be entirely down to what is most convenient to the player - for example, some of our Juniors
choose to attend the Worcestershire organised Centres as it fits in with school commitments).
What does attendance involve?
The Centres are 6 weeks of training (of 2 hours each) which then finish with a match day, where
players from all 5 centres come together and play some friendly matches. The start dates for each
of the Centres (dependent upon age, location and gender) can be found on the County website.
Why should I attend?
These Centres are set up to bring together the best players from within the County to raise the
level at which they normally train so the training should be more intense, and at a higher skill level
than either the Club or Schools can offer; it is also the only route into playing "County" hockey
(which are actually referred to as Academy Centres).
What if the times etc. are inconvenient, or my child already does too much?
The JDCs are a higher level of training, so if you are already very busy, the recommendation would
be for players to not go to the Sils training for the 6 weeks that the JDCs are on, if it comes down to
a choice, as they will develop more by attending the JDC training. Equally, if they end up being
tired after Sils training, then this will detrimentally affect their JDC performance and is NOT
recommended. If the Solihull Centres (running on Sunday afternoons either at Sils for U13s, or
Hampton for U14s and U15s) are inconvenient, then Warwick does offer mid-week sessions (these
have previous been on Thursday evenings).
On the County Website is an FAQ document which provides a whole load more information, so
please view that, and also come back to me if you have any questions.
What do I do next?
In order to attend, you simply have to Register on the EHB Player System (link from the County
website), and then print off the Consent Form once registered and take that along with you to the
first session. If you register, then we will be expecting you, so no need to do anything else to
inform us you are coming.
Other info:
There is a cost to the JDC - £45 for all 6 sessions, plus new players can get a JDC Shirt for £10
(normally £21) for the first year they attend. (A hardship fund is available, so if this cost is too high
for you, please ask, and I will discuss options with you.) Cheques should be made out to "WCHA",
but cash is also fine.
Age groups are done by CALENDAR YEAR, and NOT SCHOOL YEAR and can be calculated by taking
the Year of Birth of your child and subtracting this from the Year in which this current Season ends
– e.g. if it is currently September 2014, then the season ends in 2015, and if your child was born in
2000, then they should be in the 2015 – 2000 = 15, hence U15 age group.
(Please note that there is no specific U12 age group and they should train with the U13s – there is
currently no offering for players younger than U12s unless in exceptional circumstances, but the
club coaches will speak to you if this applies to your child)
Dates, times and locations for the sessions can be found on the County website - Please arrive
around 20 minutes early for the first week
Finally, even though we have nominated you, it is still up to the Centre Coach to assess on the first
week that you attend whether you are good enough to continue training - most will be accepted
but NOT ALL - so please do not assume you will be invited to attend all sessions; you will find out at
the end of the first session you go to whether you are invited back.
If you are already attending a centre, then no problem at all, you do not need to change, and if you
are not interested, then again, no problem. Also, as you have been recognised as players with
potential, you should also consider attending the Academy sessions run by the club, which run
from 9-10.15am on a Saturday morning - if you are interested and want more information about
whether you might attend, please email me back. We will also look to get you some games in either
the Lions squad on a Saturday (for the older players), or Badgers & Vixens for the slightly younger
ones.
Any other questions, please just let me know.
Regards,
Steve Tabb
OSHC Chairman
[email protected]