Background
Hamilton Boys’ High School Board of Trustees is very pleased to thank those that have generously contributed to the building of a new hockey surface. This surface can be used by many other sports outside of hockey, namely football and rugby training.
HBHS had an undersized hockey turf and tar seal tennis courts. The turf and tennis courts had past their used by dates and could no longer be used by competitive teams. They had become dangerous and although there was limited use by means of training, they in effect needed to be replaced. In addition, the growing number of hockey players in this region was putting strain on the over utilised facilities at Waikato Hockey.
In the Waikato there are a number of artificial surfaces being used to facilitate the amount of hockey being played. With the consistent growth in player numbers the need and amount of usage on each of these fields has increased.
In 2013 Waikato had 3618 registered players. By the calculations undertaken by Waikato Hockey Association they would require 41 grass fields to play the amount of hockey currently played. Their player numbers have increased by 16% since 2006. 2013 saw a 29% increase in Adult Numbers alone.
According to a 2011 study prepared for Hockey New Zealand the Waikato Association had the highest number of players (1039) per full-time equivalent (FTE) turf which is an indication that more artificial surfaces in the Waikato region are needed to meet the current demand. The recommend FTE by Hockey New Zealand is 650.
WHA use the turfs at St Pauls, St Peters, Fraser High School, Matamata, and Waikato Diocesan School. These turfs are of varying standards of surface and lighting but because of the turf needs WHA have them fully booked, Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. With additional practice slots used at the turfs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. WHA also have St Pauls booked out on a Sunday for representative teams to train and play their representative games.
“Hamilton City Council needs to maintain and increase partnerships with schools and tertiary institutions where possible. Explore development of additional turfs either at Innes Common or in partnership with a High School/s or tertiary institution/s. Explore developing a hierarchy of facilities (not all facilities need to be water based or specifically for hockey. For example, junior play can take place on appropriate Astroturf tennis courts). Where possible advocate for the development of multi-use facilities and / or school facility partnerships which configure Astroturf tennis courts so that they can also be used for hockey.”
WHA have started an adult midweek league with over 150 players competing on a Thursday nights, along with the 500 adults playing on the weekends. The 2013 player numbers were Club 526, Mini 1631 (the highest number anywhere in New Zealand), Intermediate 570, Secondary 891, and a further 2,000 non-affiliated players competing in summer competitions (our belief is that approximately 40% of these players only play in summer).
These players are spread across 8 clubs with 43 teams, 156 schools with 103 teams playing midweek and 114 teams playing on a Saturday morning. (Figures from 2015)
On the National scene, WHA and Midlands (High Performance structure for Waikato, Counties, Thames Valley, Tauranga and Bay of Plenty) and schools represented from these areas are competing at the highest levels. Seven of the 10 Waikato Representative teams in 2013 had top 4 national finishes.
The Waikato Boys Under 18’s, Midlands Under 18’s and Midlands National League Women’s teams were all National Champions and the Hamilton Boys High School 1st XI won Rankin Cup to be recognised as the number 1 school team in New Zealand.
The combination of ever increasing numbers of players, the success of the New Zealand Black Sticks on the World stage, the success of school and representative teams from the Waikato continues to spark the interest of the local community and further fuels the interest in Hockey and continues to grow the number of players.
Currently Waikato Hockey are reaching crisis point on turf availability and on most nights of the week are at full capacity, that is why they are fully behind and excited about the Hamilton East Community project, which they believe will not only help with turf availability, but will further encourage the growth of hockey in the region.
Hockey Turf Grand Opening
October 18th 2019
