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A revised hockey competition has been a hit with the Central Southland Junior Hockey Club members.
In the past, a mixture of girls and boys played together in teams in Hockey Southland’s junior high competition but this year the competition was divided into boy’s and girl’s grades.
There was still opportunity for a mixed team if there were not enough girls or boys to make a team.
The Central Southland club’s teams won the boy’s and girl’s competition, both finished unbeaten.
There were seven teams in each competition.
Boy’s coach Debbie Riley said dividing the competition made sense because the players were at the age when they played the game differently.
“The boys were just naturally wanting to do those massive hits and wanting to challenge themselves in a physical capacity more than the girls.”
This was off putting to some of the girls.
“What we were finding was the girls become quite timid, really.
“They didn’t want to take on the boys.”
Many of the boys in her team played in the same rugby team and were very competitive.
They had “absolutely thrived off” the new format.
Girl’s coach Belinda Brown said the girls-only competition had been great for her players.
“Some of my quieter players have had a chance to shine and build confidence, develop their skills, who might have never had the chance to see the ball or be involved before.”
At the start of the season she invited three players who had never played hockey before to join in to make up numbers.
If she had been inviting them to join a boy’s team they may have been “a bit dubious”.
“Because it was all girls and they knew lots of the girls they [came] and played, and they’ve been so successful, those three players.”
Her team was “thrilled” with the result.
The players came from different schools throughout central Southland and part of the success of the teams had been the support of parents carpooling the players to games in Invercargill, the coaches said.