With the Junior Spring League season quickly approaching, the West Vancouver Field Hockey Club has been busy developing some exciting new initiatives to help promote the sport and keep kids active. Between their Sport for Life program, their Umpiring program, and their recent Contribution to Sport award, this club will be one to watch as the season progresses.

“Sport for Life” Program

With the help of Sport for Life Canada, WVFHC is launching a project to promote athlete development, multi-sport participation and lifelong involvement in sport for all of its members. Their key focus points to implement this initiative are long-term athlete development, promoting key values, encouraging lifelong activity and wellness, and a player-centred approach.

“These values form the basis of the messages and materials that we are producing for our members this season”, explains WVFHC Executive Director, Emma Gibbons. “We are using Spring League as a chance to try out different ways to communicate these to our players, coaches and parents.”

The club will be experimenting with a variety of methods to communicate these values, including “My Player Pathway” challenges, parent and coach newsletters, posters, seminars, codes of conduct and an online campaign. At the end of the season, feedback from parents, players and coaches will be used to measure the effectiveness of the different activities in terms of communicating key messages and promoting sport for life.

“We hope that we can identify some practical ways that we – and other sport organisations – can connect and communicate with our members, beyond just sending emails”, concludes Emma.  “At the end of the day, we want to create a positive sport experience for children which will encourage them to stay active for life”.

Photo courtesy of WVFHC.

Spring League Umpiring Development

The West Vancouver Field Hockey Club is also implementing a new Spring League program centred around umpire development. This program is designed to reward education and commitment, and encourage umpire development within the club.

Before officiating any Spring League games this season, all umpires will be required to attend at least one umpire clinic. An “education” bonus will be given to any umpires who attend a second clinic, and a “commitment” incentive will go out to all umpires who officiate eight or more games throughout the season. In addition, the club has developed a mentoring scheme which allows the umpires to be assessed on field during a game.

International Hockey Federation umpire, Margaux Brand, will be coordinating this program. Visit the WVFHC Umpiring page for more information.

Contribution to Sport Award

In addition to their new programs, the West Vancouver Field Hockey Club is being recognized for hosting the FIH World League Round 2 tournament in April 2017. On March 15^th, WVFHC received the Contribution to Sport Award at the North Shore Sport Awards for their dedication to making the World League tournament a success. Throughout this 10 day tournament West Vancouver hosted seven international teams, including Canada. Over 100 volunteers from the WVFHC participated to make the event possible. The Contribution to Sport Award was given in recognition of this huge endeavour and the impressive ability of the club to showcase the sport.

On behalf of Field Hockey BC, we would like to congratulate WVFHC for their accomplishments and for their commitment to developing the sport at all levels. We are excited to see how these programs progress throughout the Spring League season!