Junior Academy
The Junior Academy has over 60 active members. It meets on Sundays from 10.00am to 12.00am on the Astroturf at the Colin Tooze Sports Centre, Ottery St Mary. Boys and girls from School Year 4 through to Year 10 are most welcome (see details for the new season 2011-12 below). Qualified coaches supported by club volunteers and parents provide high quality training in age and ability groupings. Junior Academy sessions generally do not take place over the Christmas/New Year holiday.
We enter junior teams for local competitions and nominate promising juniors for our local England Hockey Board Junior Assessment Centres for further development coaching.
Players aged over 13 years who feel they are ready are encouraged to train with the men's or ladies' on Tuesday evenings. Any youngster who feels that he / she is ready should speak with their Junior Academy coach.
If you have any queries contact:-
Mark Moore 07540 251343
or
Steve Ellison 07840 984302 or otterycrickets@live.co.uk
Older, more experienced juniors, who may be doing leadership awards or who would like to try their hand at umpiring or coaching are welcome to come along and help, as are any other more experienced club players.
Tom Down is the Club's Junior Academy Coordinator and Paul Baker is our Junior Competitions Coordinator; their full contact details can be found in the Club Info page (under Club contacts).
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NEW FOR 2011-12 SEASON - OTTERY CRICKETS HC JUNIOR ACADEMY IS EXPANDING
Ottery Crickets Hockey Club's Junior Academy is expanding!! Building on recent national recognition for its work in the local community, from the start of the new season on 18 Sep 2011 the Club is adding an extra session to its Junior Academy aimed at Primary aged children, in School Years 4-6, from 10-11am throughout the season. This will be followed from 11-12pm for youngsters in Years 7 and above.
Both sessions provide an ideal opportunity to introduce young players to hockey. Primary aged children will play Quicksticks, a safe fast-moving game to introduce the basics of hockey using special Quicksticks equipment.
Hockey beginners are particularly welcomed to join to our successful Academy. Coaching will be delivered by our team of volunteer members and parents led by England Hockey Board (EHB) qualified Level 2 coaches. Parents are encouraged to volunteer.
The Club provides a safe environment delivering high quality coaching in age and ability grouping recognised in our EHB’s ClubsFirst accreditation.
TRAINING.
We have two training sessions on Sundays for boys and girls.
Primary Aged Session: 10.00-11.00am for School Years 4, 5 & 6.
Secondary Aged Session: 11.00-12.00noon for Juniors in School Years 7 and upwards.
New junior players are most welcome to join us. For full details please see the Junior Academy in the Junior Section page.
All Club training and our home games take place at Colin Tooze Sports Centre, Cadhay Lane, Ottery St Mary, EX11 1QW.
Academy dates are: Sundays 18 Sep-11 Dec 2011 inclusive and Sundays 15 Jan–25 Mar 2012. The Academy runs over half-terms.
For more details contact the Junior Coordinator: Tom Down 07875 581272 or Mark Moore 07540 251343, or email otterycrickets@live.co.uk.
Ottery Crickets HC works in partnership with The King's School, Ottery St Mary to take forward the development of hockey in our community and will be supporting its Primary Schools' Quicksticks Tournament on Mon 19 Sep 2011 at the Colin Tooze Sports Centre.
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CRICKETS COMPETE IN DEVON MINIS TOURNAMENT 20th March 2011
A squad of eight U12 boys took part in the Devon round of the Yazoo National Clubs Mini Hockey Championships on Sun 20 Mar on the water based at Plymouth Marjons. The tournament would give our youngsters experience of playing competitive hockey and a chance to show off the skills they've picked up in the Junior Academy this season.
The boys and an enthusiastic posse of parents watched some very skillful U10s play out their competition in the morning. The U12 tournament followed immediately afterwards in five 12 minute games crammed into a very hectic afternoon. This was the first time the boys had played together and despite the fact that a couple of the lads were in their first few months of playing, they all gave a brilliant account of themselves.
Tom Gardner, Jacks Ellison & Simmons, and George Norris (two games) volunteered to play in goal and before the novelty of wearing GK kit had time to wear off, they found themselves very busy and "under fire"!! The team's performances improved game by game and it was unfortunate that they came up against the tournament's strongest teams in their first two games - Isca and Ashmoor. They lost these games 3-0 and 2-0, respectively, without challenging the oppositions' "D". Importantly, as the lads settled in they they started to understand how determined they needed to be to compete on even terms. In each game they become much more confident and realised that their skills were actually on a par with the oppositions'. The travelling spectators cheered the boys on and this seemed to lift them as they lost their third game against Teign to just a single goal with great work in defence from Fynn and Joe at the heart of the action. They gained their first point in their fourth game; a goal-less drawn against Okehampton - Liam, Luke and Jack Ellison and Tom battled very hard in midfield. The boys had done everything their coach had asked of them so far and in the final game against Lipson Lions they went behind to an early goal and spent the rest of the game playing catch up. With just a few minutes to go, the quick thinking Jack Simmons self-hit from the right side and crossed perfectly into the D for pacy Tom Gardner to bundle the ball into the net for their first goal of the tournament and a thoroughly deserved score draw!!!
The squad was:
Fynn de Sousa, Jack Ellison, Tom Gardner, Joe Henkus, George Norris, Liam Perryman, Jack Simmons, Luke Tierney.
A great day's hockey!! With the team improving so much in each game, it was a pity that there wasn't a sixth!!
Report & photo (below) : Steve Ellison
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