Volunteers are braced for arrival of the Black Sticks
The funds have been raised, the volunteers have been rounded up, and the ball boys and ball girls have been trained – now it’s time for some international hockey.
The Vantage Black Sticks Men arrive in Taranaki today to play four tests against Japan in Stratford, and will return in November to play Olympic qualifying matches against Korea.
It has taken weeks of organising to get everything ready after Taranaki beat out nine other regions to host the games, Taranaki Hockey Federation chief executive Denise Hill said.
‘‘It’s always fun. You don’t know until quite late you’re going to have the games, until you know the grant funding is happening.’’
The event costs $200,000, most of which has been raised through grants.
Hockey New Zealand get the gate takings, and while it doesn’t cost Taranaki Hockey anything, they don’t benefit financially, Hill said.
There are 1700 hockey players in the region and a number of events are being included to encourage them. These include a meet and greet where all of the local community are invited to come along and learn a few skills and get signatures. There’s a coaches and officials breakfast, a qualification course for coaches and the umpires also get to be part of the debrief.
And school teams are entering a competition to get to warm down with the Black Sticks.
More than 70 volunteers, including 43 kids, will help to run the tournament, she said. ‘‘We’re a volunteer sport. It couldn’t happen without volunteers for ticketing, gates, team liaison, ground announcer, helping to run the VIP function.’’ Both teams will stay in Stratford for part of their visit, before transferring to New Plymouth as Stratford is booked out for some of the time, she said.
The Black sticks play four games against Japan – October 10, 12, 14 and 15. The matches against Korea are on November 2 and 3.