Dear Club Members,
Welcome to the 2022/2023 season.
By way of introduction, I’m Phil Stubley the Club Chair. This is now my second season in the role.
I’m always excited at the start of the new season and this season more than any other. There is always so much going on. I’ll try and get what I can into the below.
Last weekend we had Club Day and the Yorkshire Cup (for the Women’s and Men’s 1XI Teams). What a successful weekend it was. Club Day was brilliant. I enjoyed seeing lots of members old and new attend what was a very well organised event by Zoe & Jodi. Also, a big thanks to Neil Parke for running the Barbecue. It looks like you’ve ousted Steve Parker as the club barbecue expert. On Sunday we won both Yorkshire Cup titles. Well done to everyone who played and represented our club. We are officially the best club in Yorkshire!
Club Roles
We have had some changes in certain roles over the summer. Below are some of those:
We previously reported appointing Mikey Hoare as the new Men’s 1XI Team Player/Coach. It’s been fantastic to see them in pre-season and I am looking forward to their first league game on the 25th of September (14:30 at Weetwood). I will also be down watching the Women’s 1XI begin in their new league on the 24th of September (14:00 at Weetwood). And then without missing every team throughout the club… I’m always about as much as possible to watch all teams. I hope to see many of you supporting/playing.
Dave Pearson has volunteered to be our Umpire Coordinator. He’s got off to a cracking start. Dave has been at the club for many years and last season attained Level 2 umpire accreditation. Thanks, and good luck Dave.
Zoe Helme and Jodi Williamson are the new Social secs. They equally got off to an amazing start at Club Day. Keep an eye out for their Socials in due course.
The key vacancy we have at the minute is Communications. This means you will see less Social Media activity until we can find volunteers to help us. In previous messages from myself I have highlighted if we do not have people in roles you will see a reduction in that activity, the same applies here. Every volunteer we have is important to us. Please reach out to us if you are interested in this role. We are happy for people to share roles.
On Pitch
I would like to remind all members of some key elements to run a successful club.
Paying your fees. Yes. At the end of last season, we were still chasing members to pay. This is not acceptable and prevents many of us on the committee from doing the things we should be doing to run the club. We have sent messages about changing your payment method within ClubBuzz to be a direct debit payment. I encourage everyone to do this. You will see a stricter policy from us this season if you do not pay your outstanding debts.
Your Availability – This is crucial for us to provide teams. We need you to communicate with your Captains when you can or cannot play. Managing unavailability is the biggest challenge we face during a season.
Respect for volunteers – I talked last season about changing the culture of the club. That message remains the same. Thank you to the teams that took on board my request last season to remove voting of DOD. If your team hasn’t done this yet I encourage you to do so. This also feeds into respect for the people that ensure you have a game of hockey to play every week, from the fixture sec, to your captains and to the umpires.
Off Pitch
The Club needs to obtain ClubMark status. This is an England Hockey recognition that will give us the ability to become a Talent Centre. We need this by October 2023. I am currently putting together a team obtain this. But we won’t just stop at obtaining ClubMark. It will give us the opportunity to further progress as a club.
This progression is our key challenge at present. We will need more people to help us with this. If you want help in anyway, please contact [email protected].
Junior Section
I’ve been excited by the continued success of our Junior section. The work and time that goes into this area of the club is massive. Lucy Horsfield and Barney Sargeant-Megicks are already up and running in leading the girls and boys sections. We need to continue to build links in this area not just externally but also within the club.
Partnership
None of the above would occur without our continued relationship with University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University. The facilities we have available to us are the best in Yorkshire. I want to thank everyone who is involved in working on our partnership, the staff at Weetwood and Beckett Park who support the pitches, also those behind the scenes we continue to work with.
I hope all members enjoy their season. Welcome back to hockey!
Thanks
Phil Stubley
Chair
Leeds Hockey Club
