Christmas Message from Head of Junior Hockey

EGHC's Juniors have had a great start to the 2025 / 2026 season.  Click to read the reflections of our Head of Junior Hockey !

What a great and busy start to the season it has been.

A lot of hard work has gone in by some incredible volunteers behind the scenes to make sure the junior section is more ambitious than ever. I have an amazing team around me who work around the clock to ensure things run as smoothly as possible during the week. In addition, the support from the parent managers makes everything easier, so a big thank you to those who have stepped up!

We have seen a real push on the indoor format of the game, with more juniors playing indoor hockey than ever before. This has coincided with more tournament entries, a brilliant and passionate coaching team, and juniors with bundles of energy, resulting in a great atmosphere at the club. EGHC is a great place to be at the moment.

Whether the players aim is to play in the Premier League, to make the Talent Academy, to maybe play for England, or to play socially, the end result is to see our juniors have as much fun playing hockey as possible. One of the best parts about the role is seeing our juniors playing hockey with a smile on their face, it is incredibly rewarding .

We have seen forty-six juniors playing for our odult teams so far this season on the clubs junior pathway, with two making their Premier League debut for our Women's First Team! As a club we take great pride in this, and have had nothing but positive feedback about all their experiences! It is great to see more juniors than ever playing for our adult teams.

We are very lucky at EG to have such a great and passionate coaching team, who are working hard to ensure every player gets the most out of their hockey. The team holds high standards of themselves, and this has meant we have seen some amazing progression in not just the results, but our juniors' overall performance on the pitch.

Whilst we are looking forward to the Christmas "break" (I say this despite all the Indoor tournaments we have over this period), I am incredibly excited to see where this journey will take us. We have many things planned to ensure our juniors get as many opportunities as possible to showcase their hockey skills! This is only the start of an exciting journey.

I hope everyone enjoys the break with family and friends, and comes back raring to go in the second half of the season starting January 5th.

Have great Christmas, and a Happy New Year

Michael Lewis – Head of Junior Hockey