Annual YMCC Hockey Club High-Performance Pathway Camp a major success in Narrogin

Hockey players from around the region were part of a high-performance camp for junior girls held in Narrogin at the weekend.

Twenty-seven players attended YMCC Hockey Club’s annual High-Performance Pathway Camp.

Players from YMCC and regional clubs including Narrogin, Bunbury, Wagin, Kalgoorlie and Perth took part in the intense two-day camp, which was headed by Kevin Knapp.

The camp is designed for 15 to 18-year-olds who are aspiring to improve their hockey knowledge and skills.

The camp provides the girls with knowledge of what is expected of elite players in the journey through State and national sport.

It started on Friday evening with a board session on multiple factors, what they would learn and what was expected from them at the weekend.

Across the weekend the girls developed their hockey skills, team building, sportsmanship, code of conduct, hockey formats, nutrition, warm-up and cool-downs, positional play and injury management.

The program started at 8am on Saturday and finished at 7.30pm, consisting of both activities on the turf and inside the rooms.

The girls then had a four-hour session on Sunday to complete the camp.

Knapp was supported by fellow YMCC coaches, including Suzanne Bowyer, Garth Sly, Toni Slater, Stew McDonald and Larissa Kazakoff, to help deliver the sessions while also providing volunteers to cook and prepare all the food for the weekend.

Upper Great Southern Hockey Association development officer Rodney Johnson said it was a great weekend.

“A big thank you to the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries through the WASP program for their support of this camp to enable Wheatbelt hockey players to attend,” he said.

“All in all this was a very successful weekend with many girls learning more information than they had previously.”