The Academy is now in its fifth year and I have been privileged to be involved in the development of the Academy since its inception in 2001.
The Academy was the brainchild of the club’s late President, Derek Higgins, who set out the framework and aim of the Academy, which was to reinforce the idea to schools throughout South West Essex and East London that hockey was a real alternative to football and other mainstream sports.
Over the years we have established and maintained excellent links with local schools, building long term relationships with a view to providing their students with top class hockey coaching and hopefully the possibility of acquiring talented young hockey players who will join the club.
Initially the age range which was to be catered for was the 10 – 16 years age group. However, this has now been lowered to an entry level of seven years of age. This has been made possible by additional coaches, which are funded through The OL Trust. The youngsters now benefit from additional coaching to that received via the mini hockey section and for the older students it is of benefit to them to receive a high level of coaching before they are integrated into the eleven-a-side game.
In addition to Tuesday evening coaching there are a series of camps run during the Summer, Easter and Christmas holidays. The introduction of the short Christmas camp a couple of years ago has proved to be extremely successful with other 50 students attending last year.
There have been many well know coaches involved over the years, namely: Nick Thompson; Jon Brown; Soma Singh and Julian Halls. Currently the Academy coaches are headed up by Mike Hughes and assisted by Ali Bray, Flick Bamgbose and most recently, England international James Stedman.
It would be virtually impossible to run the Academy without the generous financial support from The OL Trust, for which we are extremely grateful.
Any youngsters who would like to attend the Academy, please telephone me on 07979 902171.
Robert Gunn
Youth Academy Manager
