***Due to Covid-19 the U18 programme is currently on hold***

Otago Hockey is excited to welcome back the U18 age group to association level. Below is an outline of the U18 program we are putting in place to make sure we give our players every opportunity to perform on the national stage.

We are offering several optional hockey sessions before the trial because:

• we want the players to be well prepared for the trial
• we are looking at selecting the squad before school hockey starts and 2 weeks into our club hockey
• we want to make sure all players wanting to trial are in the best shape and have had enough hockey under their belt

Phase 1 – Training / upskilling sessions

These sessions will run on Monday evenings through February and early March from 4.00pm-5.30pm on the following dates:

Monday 3^rd Feb

Monday 10^th Feb

Monday 17^th Feb

Monday 24^th Feb

Monday 2^nd March

 Phase 2 – Conditioning Games

We will be having games for the U18 players interested in playing Rep hockey in 2020. These will be on the following Monday evenings:

March 9th 

Men - 4.00pm-5.30pm (meet time 3.45pm)
Women - 5.30pm - 7.00pm (meet time 5.00pm)

16th March

Women - 4.00pm-5.30pm (meet time 3.45pm)
Men - 5.30pm - 7.00pm (meet time 5.00pm)

23rd March

Men - 4.00pm-5.30pm (meet time 3.45pm)
Women - 5.30pm - 7.00pm (meet time 5.00pm)

30th March

Women - 4.00pm-5.30pm (meet time 3.45pm)
Men - 5.30pm - 7.00pm (meet time 5.00pm)

(Each week we will put players into teams and play full field games)

We are looking to have a squad selected in early April – this is around the end of school term 1.

Phase 3 - Trial

The U18 trial will be held on Sunday 5^th April.

U18 women - 8.30am - 10.30am

U18 men - 10.00am - 12noon.

From this we will look to have a squad which will work together for a few weeks before the final team is announced around the end of April 2020.

In terms of games and Rep program, we are still working through this but to give you an idea training will be Sunday (whether this is morning or afternoon is still to be decided)  and Thursday evening at this stage (this is not set in stone yet but it will be by mid-January). We have planned a weekend over Queens Birthday weekend in Christchurch to play Canterbury over 3 days – a mini test series. If Southland have a team, we will look to play them also.

National Tournaments are 5-12 July, Boys in Hamilton and Girls in Wellington.

The final plan will be presented to all players in a 20-minute presentation to all before the trials.

Please note: The trial is the only event which is necessary to attend in order to be selected for the Otago U18 teams. The trainings (Phase 1) and the conditioning games (Phase 2) are not compulsory. There is no cost  to phase 1&2. There will be a $10 levy for the trial date.