Hong Kong Football Club - Mini Hockey Tournament 2017

This sunny morning started early for the coaches and the U10 team, as the first match was scheduled at 8am. Liesbeth was welcoming everyone at the blue pitch. Our son, part of the U8 team, started one hour later under great guidance from Amelie. Full enthusiasm 6 little players tried to get the ball and were running as fast as they could. In this enthusiasm the flute signal was often not heard........For most of the little players this was their first ever tournament so they had to get used to the dynamics of the game. After the first couple of matches it went much better and especially big improvements were made in the defence. Unfortunately this resulted not in a win, but all beginning is difficult. The kids had fun and politely shaked hands with the other team after each match. Amelie and Kelly-Ann did a great job in positioning the little players and supporting the team. After the last match everyone received an award and a group picture we made.
A big THANK YOU to all the coaches (Kelly-Ann, Liesbeth and Amelie) for the great guidance and their enthusiasm. It is such a good experience for all kids and they learnt a lot today. 
Esther Ko Verhoek
(James' mum)

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Thank you Esther for the great write up on the HKFC tournament. 

I'd like to thank all the parents, helpers and coaches who came along to support our DHC Hockey Stars in their first tournament this year, and for many, it was their first tournament ever! 

This year at the HKFC Mini-Tournament (a 6-a-side game), we entered 1 Under 10 team, and 2 Under 8 teams, where one of our under 8 teams was mostly made up of Under 6's! 
The whole group learned so much.

I loved seeing how the Under 10 team worked so well as a team, with great passing, dribbling and defending, they all grew so much. They were also helped out by two younger siblings, Ruben and Seppe who stepped up to assist when they could, again, a valuable piece of experience for them. Thank you to Sjoerd for picking up where my running around meant I couldn't properly sit the team down. The groups 2-0 win over the Lions was fun to watch, and the DB Pirates was a close game. The "PLK" team rocked up with a goalie and some players who should probably be in Senior Nationals, but oh my, this game was where our defence was so strong, a number of players rotated in our goal. 

The Senior Under 8 team improved game on game, Liesbeth (you can see pictured above) having a team talk with the group before they got started, really getting into the team spirit! It wasn't easy playing on the rugby pitch either! This team is going to grow and grow over the rest of the year. 

The Junior Under 8's were in a tough league, with some far more experienced teams, but they still put on a courageous effort and by the end were even participating in one-on-one competitions which James saved the day on! The under 10's did manage to get one pre-game "Dutch" cheer, and after every game all the teams shook hands with the opposition. That's the spirit!  

I'm looking forward to seeing the juniors back out again next weekend for the Hong Kong Hockey Association tournament at Happy Valley, this time 5-a-side! 

Kelly-Ann
Junior Convener