I hope this 'Chairman's newsletter' finds you well. I have to apologise, it has been a long time since I posted one of these. However after what seemed like a short and busy summer break now seemed like a good time to share a club update with you.

We closed out last season with three excellent events that I felt privileged to attend and partake in. Firstly, on the 26th April we held our Senior Club Dinner. With a capacity attendance and lots to celebrate with the promotion of our Ladies 1 & 2's and our Men's 2's this was an excellent night. Then, on the 10th May we had our Youth Presentation night. It has been a while since I attended one of these but I was blown away with the involvement all players had in the celebration, the feedback shared by our coaches and team managers, and the support all the parents gave to the club.

Finally, on the 19th May, at the final Youth Coaching session of the season we organised a surprise retirement send off to our Youth Co-Ordinator David Woodward. The 170 person strong guard of honour and speeches about his dedication to hockey spanning a 36 years (in post) is a memory I know David will cherish forever. If you missed the day you can read more about it here. We are thrilled that whilst David has stepped down from his operational roles he is continuing as our Club President.

Teams
On the Senior side, this season sees us introduce a Ladies 3rd team and also a second Development Team for the first time. This is an excellent recognition of progress made in growing our player numbers and developing our young members ready for senior hockey. With 46 ladies across 3 teams on paper we have more than sufficient numbers, however with school games often clashing both new teams will require support from our Senior members and Parents to make them a success so please help out where you can.

We have a great compliment of Team Captains this season who I'm confident will drive the club forward whilst supporting our young players through their senior hockey journey. It has been great to see some new faces join us; Eddie Fisher in the M1, Phillip Kofi, Ali Muslim & Vijayan Ramachandran in the M3, Liv Clough returning from Uni in the L1 and Kiera Valentine-bull in the L2. The Senior sides have had a good start to the season overall, with the Men 2s winning 2 of 2, the Ladies 1s & 2s winning 1 of 2 and the Men 1s winning 1 of 1.

On the Youth side this season we've entered 2 Under 8 teams, an U10 boys and girls, an U12 boys, 2 U12 girls, an U14 boys and girls and and U16 boys and girls. This give us a great platform to offer hockey to all our members whilst giving us plenty of space to grow.

Remember, if you're a new member you can claim free kit after paying your Subscriptions and, if you refer a friend you will receive free match fees as a thank you. Speak to your captain/team manager for more information.

Coaching
We have made some changes to our Youth Coaching set-up over the past 2 seasons following feedback from our members. 5-12 year olds continue to train on a Sunday morning, now 10-11:30. Then, our U14 & U16 squads train on alternate Tuesday evenings 18:30-20:00.

Our Senior teams continue to train on a Thursday evening, with the ladies 18:30-20:00 and the men 20:00-21:30. Danny Berry continues as our Club Head coach, providing both on-pitch coaching, as well as co-ordinating the coaching programme for all sessions and leading on the club playing strategy.

Facilities
This season has seen our costs increase significantly due to both prices increases by SHU and additional booking requirements for the new teams. For this season though the club will absorb the increase, but it will unfortunately mean a fees review at the end of the season is inevitable. We will however look to ensure out pitch bookings remain well utilised and currently have a small working group led by Rob Watson exploring alternative options for after match teas as the estimated cost of those for this season is £5000.

As it stands we are the only club utilising the pitch with Phoenix now playing at Oakwood and the University teams favouring Abbeydale. We are working with the University through our Steering Group to explore how to increase pitch usage which could help mitigate further price increases.

I am aware of issues with parking on-site, unfortunately though, we have no preferential parking as part of our agreement with SHU. Please arrive early where possible, only park in designated spaces if within the car park and if these are full utilise the grass banks or roads surrounding SHU.

I'm also aware that not all the flood lights are working, this has been raised with SHU and we await an update on when they will be fixed. If there are any other issues with the facilities please don't hesitate to make me aware so we can ensure they get addressed.

Social
We will be booking our usual first club social of the season, an evening bowling asap for late October. We will would also like to have another social before Christmas but that will only happen if someone steps up to organise it, if you think this is seething you could help with please let me, or any member of the committee know.

The Fantasy Hockey and Weekly Pools organised by Club Captain, Simon Hibbert are an excellent talking point on match days. If you haven't already join in and have a go.

Finance
The switch to using Pitchero for subscriptions and match fees last season worked very well. It meant that for the most part we carried a lot less debt which improved our Club cash flow and a lot of the burden of chasing people to pay. Can I please ask though that when you get the Pitchero notification to pay, you do so promptly to make Captains, our Club Captain and Treasurers role far easier. Also, a reminder that the deadline for paying player Subscriptions is the 31st October so please ensure you have paid prior to this date to avoid any late payment fees.

We have also extended the partnership with out main club Sponsor Harworth and also Yorkshire Windows. This year their support will fund our schools coaching programme and two additional junior goal keeper kits. And following their promotion, Nilfisk (floor cleaning machines) and Charlie's Angels (Cleaning Services and Janitorial supplies) have kindly sponsored the home kit for our ladies 1st Team.

We are always on the look out for new sponsors, we have flexible options available. If you know anyone that may be interested please let us know, find out more here.

Playing Kit
We have decided to refresh our playing kit for the 2024-25 Season. The home shirt will be of a similar colour scheme meaning there will be no immediate need to change your home shirt. However, we are looking to change the colour of the away kit which was voted on at a recent player meeting. A separate post will follow on this, giving players options to vote on.

Community Coaching
It is fair to say that our community reach out is going from strength to strength in recent months. As well as supporting regular Rotherham School Games events and recently attending the both the Rotherham Parent and Carers Forum Family Fun Day and Rotherham Show we have an increasing number of bookings for Schools coaching.

James Swinscoe is doing a fantastic job of growing our community out reach, but having recently coached at Oakwood High School, Kilnhirst Juniors, Meadowview Primary, Wath Church of England Primary, Brinswoth Juniors and Thrybergh Fullerton he needs more support. We recently advertised for a part time coach to assist him, please consider if you can help, no experience is necessary we can support with this. Find out more here.

A huge thank you to all that have supported James recently; Katie Houghton, Archie Busby, David Woodward, Ziva Rogers and Ava Massarella. The quality of coaching has received excellent feedback and we have seen several players starting at Youth coaching as a result.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank those that have stepped up to take on a role this season and for your hard work in pre-season, without you we would not have a club. I would also like to encourage any player or parent to speak to myself or any member of the management committee should you have any questions or concerns about the club, or equally if you can assist in any way or have any suggestions for consideration.

Kind Regards,

James Thomas
Chairman
james.thomas@rotherhamhc.org.uk