The first half of the 2025/26 season has been a huge success for our youth setup with a record number of children attending training, the most teams we’ve ever taken to South Essex tournaments and representation at county and international talent centre levels!

The warm start to the season didn’t harm our ability to attract and retain a good influx of new members into our u8, u10 and u12 age groups. With over many as 60 children attending Saturday morning training, it’s been all hands to the pump for our coaching and support crew. A huge thanks to all of our on field coaches (Jonty, Tom, Henry, Tim, Kate, David, Sam, Calvin, Charlotte, Steph, Simon… sorry if I missed anyone!) for your continued energy and support.

The clement weather has also meant that all four of the Essex South Tier 3 tournaments have gone ahead (we usually get frozen off at least once!), with trips to Upminster, Havering, Old Loughts and a home tournament at the Bridge. These events allow anyone who wants a game the opportunity to play. And such has been the demand, we’ve taken 7 teams to almost every event. These tournaments require plenty of support, so further thanks to Keira, Richard and Ali for stepping in to help manage various teams at various tournaments! We look forward to three more tournaments before the season ends.

We’ve also gone from strength to strength with Thursday evening training for school year 6-9, with 25+ children attending week-in week-out for more advanced sessions, including dedicated goalie coaching. A big thanks to Jonty for continuing to spearhead this. The timing of these sessions (directly before Men’s training) has definitely helped to swell the number of under 14 boys who now regularly stay on for a further 90 mins of Men's training with Conor and Jack. That’s quite a shift!

These sessions help to bridge the path from ‘minis’ hockey into u14 11-a-side hockey and then up into our adult teams. We’ve given debuts to 6 boys across three u14 boys fixtures so far, the most recent of which saw a goal on debut from one of them for a 1-0 win against Old Loughts! Our girls u14, overseen by Steph, hope to get fixtures in the diary in January onwards.

As we look a little higher, we see many of our recent u12s ‘alumni’ making an impact in adult hockey with representatives all the way up to the Men’s 3s and Ladies 1s… indeed more than half the Men’s 6 are now from our u14 squad. This group is a fantastic bunch, and it was great to see lots of them play in our twice-annual u16 intra-club mixed game and pizza evening in December. Many of this group also give up their time to help our adult coaches with training – impressive dedication for 8.45am on a Saturday morning(!) – thanks Darcey, Calen, Stan, Jannick, Will, Emmeline and Jemima for your efforts.

All these games require umpires of course. So a big thanks to Suzanne, Max, Josh and Steph who’ve helped out with keeping the matches flowing. Plus, we know the real highlight of Saturday morning training is… a nice cuppa and a hot roll in the clubhouse afterwards. Massive thanks to Steve, Sue, Helene and everyone else who has lent a hand.

Rounding off this half of the season, we’re also delighted to announce that we have a new sponsor for the youth section in the form of Giles Wilson Solicitors, whose name you’ll see appear around the club in the coming weeks - this helps our infrastructure and the ongoing support we can offer.

If you’d like to help out with the youth section, in whatever capacity, please email Simon on youth@oldsouthendianhc.com. We’re always looking for more coaches, umpires and support crew to help us continue to grow!