June marks the start of another exciting winter hockey season for Durban and KwaZulu-Natal’s biggest hockey club, Riverside Hockey. In addition to the usual league fixtures, a number of worthwhile, unmissable events are planned for the coming months.
On the 16th of June, Youth Day, the club will hold its annual Mini Hockey Festival which attracts mini-athletes from all over KwaZulu-Natal. This year welcomes Spur as the event’s new sponsor. As the province’s biggest mini-hockey festival, there will be over 70 teams with players from the under 9, 11 and 13 age groups from surrounding clubs and communities joining in the fun. Riverside Hockey festival organiser, Natalie Cryer, says, “This really is a great way for our enthusiastic young hockey players to prove their mettle on the pitch while the festival itself provides a fun day out for the whole family. This is part of our mandate to promote sport and specifically hockey as a healthy, social activity within our club’s mantra of pure hockey enjoyment.”
The ‘Kit for KwaMashu Kids’ programme will be launched at the festival. Sponsored by Varsity College, this initiative appeals to all people attending the Spur Riverside Mini Hockey Festival, be they members of Riverside or visiting clubs, to bring old hockey kit to donate to the INK (Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu) Hockey Club. Chairman of Riverside Hockey Club, Wayne Phillips observed that hockey is growing exponentially in these areas. “We’ve had a strong relationship with INK Hockey Club since 2007 and donating unused hockey and other sporting equipment is one of our major ways of supporting them”. INK has done incredibly well over the past few years with the under 12 boys’ team recently being selected across all sporting codes by Ethekwini Municipality to take part in the World Junior Games in Austria. The team departs for Austria the day after the festival. The ‘Kit for KwaMashu Kids’ campaign has boosted hockey in the INK areas providing sporting opportunities for these previously disadvantage communities – basically every set of shoes, shin pads and a stick is used by the club’s facilitator, Nathi Ngubane, to recruit another child to his passion of hockey.
Now in its second year and sponsored by Varsity College, the Reach Programme will also be launched shortly after the festival on June, 16. This popular programme aims to provide high level training and league matches to Riverside’s squad of over 120 talented 12 to 15 year olds who will be subjected to a succession of rigorous training sessions. The squad that is selected on the 23rd June will go on to play in a series of matches which will culminate on the 10th August. Riverside’s Director of Coaching, Derek Field says, “With one coach to every eight players, the Reach Programme provides a high performance environment where young hockey players can take their game to the next level. The objective of the Reach initiative is to encourage all promising players to remain in the game after they leave school by exposing them to Riverside’s pure hockey enjoyment philosophy.”
Finally on the 27th, 28th and 29th of June, Riverside Sports will host the Riverside Elite Club Challenge. This is the country’s only national inter-club tournament and this year the teams will showcase our International Stars (currently playing in the World Cup in Holland) including last year’s runners-up, Wanderers from Gauteng, the Western Province CC and current title holders Riverside. Kearsney, one of KwaZulu-Natal’s top teams will fill the 4th slot. Phillips says, “All teams field international players and are current league champions in their provinces. There is no doubt this tournament will provide some thrilling hockey entertainment.” The Elite Club Challenge will also feature mini games for players in the Reach Programme to expose these players to top hockey.
For more information please visit www.riversidehockey.co.za.