HOCKEY in Parkes is as good as ever, with five juniors recently being picked to represent NSW at the upcoming National Championships.
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Ellie Parker and Elly Thornberry have been picked in the main under 15s girls side, with Flynn Thompson being picked in the under 15's boys 'B' side.
Toby Collins and goalkeeper Jack Westcott were both named in the under 18s Blues side.
Parkes Hockey Incorporated's junior director, stalwart Graham Thompson, was proud as punch that the association has such talented locals representing NSW.
"Their selections are a testament to the junior program in Parkes that has progressed all through the years," he said.
"It does really help having a regional coordinator like Johno (Parkes' Glenn Johnstone), and his role focuses on developing of junior hockey in towns like school galas - real grassroots stuff, in addition to developing elite players.
"Having such good sponsors over the years has been really crucial too, to help keep costs down and keep families in hockey," said Thompson.
"We changed our structures and format in juniors awhile back to really encourage people to stay involved in hockey," he said.
"We still grade our players, we don't do club-based leagues like some associations do; and in lower grades we do half-field seven-a-side games to get more kids involved and learning the game.
"It helps to even teams out and keep players interested and playing at the right level.
"Basically that's the biggest challenge - to retain and attract players and so far our numbers are really solid," said Thompson.
They're doing a pretty good job of retaining players judging by what Thompson said earlier this week.
"We've got roughly 350 juniors this year, and we are seeming to retain the numbers year-to-year," he said.
"We've got D, C, B reserves, B, A reserves and A-grade competitions at the moment, and run the games for high school-aged children on Wednesday nights to keep them interested.
"We are also blessed with so many parents, coaches and players giving back and helping out - in the junior ranks the amount of support you get is unbelievable," said a proud Thompson.
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It really is incredible that across eight NSW teams (two teams in each gender for under 15s and 18s), a town like Parkes has five representatives.
Compare that to Bathurst, a town with over 30,000 more people and a very strong hockey program, which has six juniors named across the eight sides.
So impressed was one hockey association, Thompson said they suggested a Zoom call so they could get an insight into Parkes' program.
"I had an email come through recently from Newcastle women's juniors; they wanted to hook up with a zoom meeting and see how we structure our program and how we develop our players," he said.
"We had to re-schedule it but it's a great opportunity and a good way for us to potentially get some new ideas as well."
To think, Newcastle looking to little old Parkes for inspiration!
No one does hockey like Parkes.
Now go show 'em what we're made of, Elly, Flynn, Toby, Ellie and Jack!
The under 15s tournaments will take place from April 7 - 13 in Newcastle, while the under 18s will play in Cairns from April 6 - 14.
In other hockey news, local hero Mariah Williams has been named in the Hockeyroos squad for 2022 again, with some new blood in the side set to rejuvenate the team ahead of the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Always doing us proud.
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