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There will be an indoor hockey gala day this Sunday, October 14 at the PCYC on Young Road from 9.30am till 2.30pm.
Entry is a gold coin donation and there will be a lucky door prize for a voucher at Just Hockey.
Co-organiser of the day, Gai Gauci, said the day will be focused on covering rules, skills and strategy, keeping and hoping to have a demonstration game.
“It’s a fast and fun game to watch and play,” she said
“We will be playing up at PCYC on the basketball courts with rebound sides, so you can imagine how fast the ball moves in those circumstances.”
There will be some state players come to help out and run the day, as well as the usual volunteers.
Mrs Gauci said indoor hockey addresses the issue of a lack of synthetic turf fields in Cowra and will help younger players hoping to play at a representative level.
“Playing on synthetic turf is a much faster game than grass and needing different skill sets and different tactics and game play,” she said.
“We feel that introducing indoor will go some way to equipping our kids and other players in being able to compete with more equity against other places when trialing for representative field hockey positions.
“Indoor hockey also requires less players to make a team, so we are more able to field our own side rather than players needing to go Bathurst if they want to represent.”
She said interest is building in Cowra for hockey.
“So it was just me and Xavier (Gauci) for the last twelve months trying to get it up and running,” she said.
“Most people in Cowra hadn’t experienced indoor before so it has been a long haul to get it going and get people to understand what we were trying to do.
“We applied for a $5,000 grant with Sport and Rec and were successful, so that gave it a good boost.”
Mrs Gauci said they now formed a committee for indoor hockey and Cowra has already entered a number of representative sides into upcoming competitions.
“We have entered both a girls and boys team in the Under 13’s Indoor State Championships in early November,” she said.
“Our young players have been working three training sessions a week at the moment, and we have an exciting session booked with the NSW Under 13s coach.
“This is an interesting time for Cowra Hockey, which continues to grow in numbers as a great family community.
“Now with indoor hockey, the future is bright for developing hockey for our kids.”