All eyes on project school for hockey
KUCHI NG: The Ho ckey Association of Sarawak ( HAS) is going all out to set up a project school for hockey.
According to HAS president Datin Mary Sadiah Zainuddin, their proposal to turn SMK Paku into a project school for hockey has been submitted to the Education Ministry.
“We are quite optimistic that the proposal will receive a favourable response and, in principle, the Sarawak Education Department has agreed with it,” she told The Borneo Post.
SMK Paku, she explained, was the ideal venue for the project as it has a hockey field and many Kuching and state players come from the Bau secondary school.
“Previously, there was a “Adopt A School” programme for hockey introduced by the Education Ministry in Sarawak but the programme did not go down well as the State Education Department did not get us involved. The students were not keen on taking up hockey,” she said.
“HAS will be working very closely with the Education Department on developing hockey in the state as the schools are the feeders of hockey talents.
“We shall start with form one students at SMK Paku through a talent identification programme,” added Mary.
O t he r pr o g r amme s in the pipeline are organising prog rammes in l ine with Malaysian Hockey Confederation ( MHC), 1Mas development programme for U11, 13 and 15
HAS will be working very closely with the Education Department on developing hockey in the state as the schools are the feeders of hockey talents. Datin Mary Saadiah Zainuddin, HAS president
boys and girls, MSNS development centres for schools active in hockey, and a Sukan Pretasi Tinggi Sekolah programme for teachers involved in hockey to work together with HAS.
“Apart from that, we will organise umpiring courses to develop and produce umpires for local competitions, coaching courses to develop more coaches especially among the teachers, and to revive hockey associations at divisional level,” said Mary.
HAS was formed through the merger of the Sarawak Hockey Association and the Sarawak Women’s Hockey Association in October last year under the directive from MHC that men’s and women’s hockey must come under one roof, in line with the International Hockey Federation.
“I am happy to announce that Sarawak hockey is under a new management team and it is my hope that our new management team will work closely together and bring new ideas to revive, develop hockey in the state and contribute to Sarawak’s vision to be a sports powerhouse,” said Mary.
Among the first programmes initiated by HAS is the inaugural TNB Sarawak Hockey League which kicked off last weekend.
The league, sponsored by Tenaga Nasional Berhad, aims to discover new talents to be brought into the state elite development programme, revive and popularise hockey at the grass roots level and establish hockey as a competitive sport at state level.
HAS OFFICE- BEARERS FOR 2015-2017 President: Deputy president: Vice presidents:
Datin Mary Saadiah Zainuddin James Harold Brodie Claudia Regina Janting, Mohd Taufik Abd Ghani, Gersip Singh, Hajebah Arip Kangot Awan Rabunah Manjat Benedict Tham Swee Khoon Loh Siow Ngo Mahran Kipli, Sunil Roy Chakravert, Marzatilaswat Hamzah, Lisa Ludong, Catherine Lambor, Beatrice Sawin
Secretary: Assistant secretary: Treasurer: Assistant treasurer: Committee members: