Our Future - Hawks@90

At the heart of our principle of sustainability, developing our young players will underpin the future of our club.

The future of our club

We aim to build on the solid foundations established in our junior section to date - including our coaching team, our extensive range of junior squads from U8 through to U18 and our commitment to nurturing talent into our adult teams.

We already have a successful Community outreach programme operating in over 20 schools across Oxfordshire, we are also one of twenty England Hockey Talent Academies.

Find out below how we're going to build on these foundation to create a leading Youth Hockey Development Programme.

We are extending our established training and development programme

Enhance our Youth Training with focused session on how to manage the mental side of the game.
Encourage all of our Young Players to attend the ‘Young Leaders’ future coaches training programme.
Embed the ‘Hawks Way’ into our Youth Section.
Continue with our Project 2000 Outreach to bring hockey to new players across Oxfordshire and beyond.

We are creating integrated squad management

Create a Manager-Coach partnership for each Squad, with a Manager for each year group.
Improve links to the adult squads (>13 years old), through encouraging spectating and ball patrol and via our Adult Mentoring programme.

We are engaging and immersing parents in the game

Introduction to hockey (for parents!) – at the start of each season we will run ‘introduction to hockey’ sessions for all parents, to help you get a better understanding of the game, the Youth Section, our Club and the pathways available for Young Players.
Create a direct, accessible and consistent point of contact into every age group Squad – the Team Manager. Allows us to have a pool of the best coaches, all focused applying the Hawks Way’ to support the technical development of our Young Players.
Improve communications and engagement – recognising that Teamo is not always the best answer for communications, working with Team Managers to ensure that Parents and Young Players are kept fully informed of activity.
Set an expectation of active contribution (in some way) – yes, it’s not a one-way street – we need your help to make this happen. You don’t have to be an experienced player, or give up hours every week to make a difference. Register your interest in getting involved by completing this short form.

We are leveraging the scale of our club

Creating a ‘pay it forward’ legacy for senior players in adult games (particularly but not only as they become parents) to support the next generation coming through, knowing that this will become a self-sustaining environment for future generations to come.
Engaging parents and Young Players into the pre and post-match hockey culture – as with the Adult section, the game isn’t finished at the final whistle, the enjoyment continues in the clubhouse afterwards.
Encouraging and arranging more social events – within the squads, the Youth Section and the wider Club.

We will continue to inspire our young players

Active support for representative hockey – see here for the Player Pathways which show how your Young Player can progress through the ranks into the representative hockey squads.
Create links to the National Teams and events – Hawks has a vast network of links into some of the heros of our national teams past and present. We plan to work hard to help our Young Players meet these legends of the game, through club events, organised attendance at national games and more besides!
Promote Ball Patrol and Young Leaders programmes – see here for how your Young Player can get front-row seats at our 1st Team games and how they can learn how to be a paid coach of the future.