National team preparing for European Nations Championship

The hockey national team is stepping up a gear in its preparations for the European Nations Eurohockey Championship being played in Croatia in July/August 2017. National coach Pieter Bregman has been preparing the national team since November of last year but since the end of the National League won by The Lightshop Hotsticks, but this week a selection of the National team players will be playing a couple of sparring matches with an English club side Old Cranleighans.

This will be a great opportunity for the Maltese selection to show off what they can do seeing that coach Bregman will be naming his squad for Croatia fairly soon.

In the meantime, on the development front, the Hockey Association Malta has teamed up with the Cyprus Hockey Federation to organise a training camp at the National Hockey Centre for the junior squads of the respective countries.

In fact, approximately 25 Cypriot junior players will be teaming up with approximately 40 Maltese boys and girls in a long weekend of activities to develop their skills and make new friendships in a rigorous programme prepared by the respective coaches.

Pieter Bregman was particularly pleased with this set up as this is ‘big stepping stone’ in getting developing players to get used to playing in different environments and with a different approach.

He continued that this approach is the way forward and that the experience these children will get from such a project will be amazing.