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You are invited to the ECHO Hockey Day!

Saturday 16th March 2013, 2:00pm – 7:00pm at Koonung Hockey Ground in Mont Albert North.

The afternoon includes:

• Junior clinic for Under 12′s, Under 10′s and Minkey  (2:00-3:30pm)
• Women’s intra-club practice match (3:30-5:00pm)
• Men’s intra-club round robin matches (5:00-7:00pm), and
• BBQ from 3:00pm.

All players need to register for the day at www.echohockey.org.au/hockeyday by Monday 11th March 2013.  This will guide catering and selection of teams.

If you have any questions please direct them to:

• Junior – Leah Arnold (hockeyaussie@gmail.com)
• Men’s – Tim Jensen (dragflickfanatic@gmail.com)
• Women’s – Natalie Oglesby (natoglesby@gmail.com)

Everyone is welcome with no obligation to register for the Winter season.   It’s a great chance for new players to be introduced to hockey and ECHO as well as to kick off the 2013 Winter season.

Go to www.echohockey.org.au to learn more about the club, contact us at echohc@hockeyvictoria.org.au or register for the 2013 Winter season at www.echohockey.org.au/registration

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Registrations are now open for what promises to be a ground breaking year for ECHO hockey club.  This Winter season ECHO has entered 7 teams in the Men’s, Women’s and Junior competitions and is looking at entering a number of further teams including; a Masters team, a Girls Under 12s and possibly another Under 10s team. The Club is also building on the Minkey program for 5 to 7 year olds that will be run during Junior training.

Continue reading »]]> This is a call to people interested in playing in a possible ECHO Masters team in 2013.

The Masters competition is ideal for players who no longer have the time to commit to weekend sport as games are on Monday nights, want to play against players of a similar age and want to stay fit playing a team sport.  Season Starts in April 2013 with finals in September.  The costs will be the same as Regular Open-aged costs (last year $370).  No set Masters training, however, players will be encouraged to train with the Metro squad on Wednesday nights at Konung Secondary College 8:15pm-9:30pm.

Recent Hockey Victoria restructure

Hockey Victoria has begun a major restructure of a number of its competitions, this includes the Masters (previously Veterans) competition.  The key component of this will be the shift from 40+ and 50+ competitions to 35+, 45+ and 55+ competitions - turning 35 this year.

ECHO’s Plans

For the team to be viable we will require at least 14 players who are 35+ or turning 35 in 2013.  If a team is to be entered it will be entered into the bottom level, so is ideal for new players as long as we have a good number of experienced players as well.

Next Steps

For this to be successful the establishment of the team needs to be driven by players rather than the committee.  The committee will provide the structure and resources required, but we need people who can drum up support, chase up potential players and lead this team. We look forward to hearing from people interested in helping establish the ECHO Masters team and playing in it, just email us at echohc@hockeyvictoria.org.au, go to the New Players online form.

Continue reading »]]> PRESIDENT’S REPORT

At risk of sounding a little cliché, 2011-12 was a break though year for ECHO. A year that saw two Winter Premierships and two Summer Grand Finals.  A year that saw the addition of a second Women’s team, our first full field junior team, an extra summer team and the development of a new structured Minkey program.

ECHO continued its amazing growth that has blessed the Club over the past few years. This year over 150 people played a Summer or Winter game in the red and gold.  This strength of numbers has played a significant role in the year’s success. For the first time ever all ECHO teams won more Summer games than lost and our senior teams won an incredible 54 games, scored 261 goals and even more remarkably only conceded 140 goals – the least number of goals conceded since 2005 (133) when we only had three teams and two of those made Grand Finals.

ECHO continues to attract new players and retain the old ones.  This has been highlighted by the current Summer season where we have had a further 20 new players join ECHO.  The Club’s influence and recognition continues and the result is a promising and exciting future for ECHO.

2012-13 promises to be no exception. The Club has already penciled in a new Men’s Masters team following the trial of a summer Masters team.  But, this may not be the only additional team in 2013. We had a large number of Under 12 girls which could make use of the new Under 12s girls competition, a second half field under 10’s side would add to the sustainability of the Juniors, and if we can retain the number of new players we gained over Summer we may have to consider a forth men’s team.  The graph below outlines the Clubs growth and what potential growth we could see if we continue to expand into new areas. (This is based on predicted team entries over the next three years.)

This growth, while really exciting, also poses a number of challenges.  These include: larger workload for club management that is increasingly further from the on-field action, greater facility pressures on a club that already has limited facility access and ensuring we have the resources and skills to meet the player’s needs.  These challenges increase in magnitude as ECHO grows.  It has been proposed that a new executive committee structure and more targeting competition committees be established to help enable this growth going forward and help meet some of these challenges.

The Club continues to maintain a fantastic Christ centered atmosphere where teams play and carry on a witness to the Hockey Victoria community. Going forward I would love to see a continued strong focus on encouragement and for ECHO to be known for this.  As I have said before, ECHO is a truly remarkable sporting Club.

Regards,

David Oglesby

Club President

NEW CLUB MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE & CONSTITUTION

Current committee structure is at its limit and can only just service the Club’s requirements.  The addition of a Master’s team and if Juniors and Seniors continue to grow the committee will end up being a main constraining factor (along with the lack of facilities) in the Club’s growth.

A new structure will be adopted to help overcome these challenges.  These include:

• People to stand for their positions rather than fitting people to the roles,
• Change the committee from a committee of management to an executive committee that make final decisions rather than the actual functioning decisions of the Club,
• Elevate the sub-committees (competition committees) so that they are recognised under the Club’s Constitution and are accountable to the new executive committee through the Constitution, and
• Structure the competition committees with clear Terms of Reference.
• The aim would be to allow the club to grow and push a lot of the day to day operations of the Club out of the Committee.

ELECTION OF NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

A motion was moved to thank both Matt Hare who was stepping down from the Committee and Natalie Oglesby who was changing roles from the Club Treasurer to the new role of Women’s Vice-President.

The election of the new Executive Committee was conducted in-line with the above mentioned changes.

Continue reading »]]> ECHO’s fantastic 2012 Season has been capped off with a double Premiership, with both State League Men and Metro 2 Women taking out top honours.

Metro 2 Women – Despite the Women leading for the majority of the game thanks to an early goal, Southern United levelled the game late, forcing the game into extra time and eventually strokes. ECHO winning on the 8th round of strokes thanks to two fantastic saves by Michelle and then Leah putting her final stroke away.

State League 5 Men – The Men had a tough first half going in 1-1 at half time against Maccabi. In the second half ECHO lifted the intensity, putting away 3 goals. A late Maccabi goal was not enough to threaten ECHO’s lead, winning 4-2. Captain Tim Jensen breaking his jaw late in the game.

Well done to both the teams, deserving winners. Also, well done to all the players who played this year, the support and depth was a key factor in this years success. It’s exciting to see ECHO growing and thriving.

Continue reading »]]> To cap off a remarkable season both the Women’s and Men’s Firsts have made it through to their respective Grand Final’s this Saturday. The State League Men won through to the Grand Final after beating Maccabi a fortnight ago and the Women joined them by overcoming Waverley 4-2 on the weekend.

Metro 2 Women – 2:00pm Saturday at Peninsular Hockey Centre at the Monash Uni Campus in Frankston

ECHO v Southern United

State League Men - 8:00pm Saturday night at the State Hockey Centre

ECHO v Maccabi

Put on your red and gold and come down and support the Club towards Premiership glory!

If for some crazy reason you can’t make it down then follow the updates on Facebook from Echo da Clown.

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Continue reading »]]> You can now register to play Summer hockey for ECHO.  To register click here.

Summer hockey is a relatively casual and social competition which is great for all standards of hockey. This is great chance for new players to join the club. There are no official Hockey Victoria registrations and players who play for other clubs over winter are free to play summer hockey with ECHO.

For the first time ECHO is looking to enter a Masters team that will play on Monday nights.

If you are interested in playing please fill out the form below. Six teams per comp with 10 home and away rounds plus two weeks of finals. All games are played at the same ground. The usual grounds are Koonung, Waverley, Elgar Park or Camberwell.

Players of all standards are welcome and would love to see some new faces.  We also welcome non hockey players who can assist through team managing or umpiring.

SEASON DATES:

Rounds 1 – 2: 14th October – 14th December

Christmas Break

Rounds 8 – 10:  2rd February – 14 February

Finals: March

NIGHTS:

Mixed (Monday)

Men’s Masters (Monday)

Men’s (Tuesday)

Women’s (Wednesday)

Fees to be confirmed based HV costs.

*Fees go up by $10 after Round 1 Click here to register.

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Please join us in celebrating the end of the Winter season at the 2012 ECHO Medal Night. It will be a great night out for the whole ECHO community!

The night starts at 6pm for the Juniors and their supporters. There’ll be an activity or two, followed by a sausage sizzle at 6.30pm. The Juniors’ presentation will be at 7pm and should be finished up by 7.30pm. However, everyone is more than welcome to stay on for the rest of the night (subject to bedtimes).

We’d love to have as many people down at 7pm to support our young stars as possible. The formal medal count and gourmet BBQ will kick off from 7.30pm.

All past and present players, supporters, friends and family are more than welcome to attend all or any part of the evening so please spread the word.

Please RSVP by clicking here before the 3rd September. Tickets can be pre-purchased (BSB 633-000, Acct: 117623868) – incl. your name and EM12 in the transaction description. It is $15 per person for the whole evening. The juniors’ BBQ is $5.

This is ECHO’s night of nights so don’t miss out!

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7.30pm Tues 24th April

Camberwell Presbyterian Church Hall, Cnr Riversdale Rd and Waterloo St, Camberwell

Come on down and brush up your understanding of how the game is meant to be played. This will be really helpful for both those who haven’t played much hockey recently and those who will be umpiring this season. The Club’s umpiring policy is that all players (with the exception of Met 4 women and juniors) will be rostered to umpire a couple of games – if you’re freaking out, maybe come along to this event

Continue reading »]]> With the significant growth in the number of Women playing Hockey for ECHO, the Club is proud to announce that it has entered a second Women’s team to be coached by Jeremy Moore.  This team will play in a lower grade and suits developing players, beginners, social players and players who can’t commit to the time requirements for playing at a higher level.

To make this a success we still need a few more players to play in either teams, so keen to hear from Women interested in playing .  No previous hockey experience is required, just need to be sporty and enthusiastic.

Women’s training starts at 8:15pm at Koonung Secondary College on the 7th of March 2012.

If you or someone you know is interested in playing for ECHO please contact the Club through the New Players form and we will get back to you!  You can also just register for the 2012 Season at www.echohockey.org.au/registration.