Gilgai, Ross Hill, Gum Flat and Bundarra public schools headed to the Synthetic Hockey Complex for the two-hour afternoon clinic where Australian men’s hockey team player, Matt Willis from the Kookaburra Squad was among the instructors. 

“We try to get to rural and remote communities with multicultural populations that might not be able to access the coaching, equipment and programs that children from bigger centre can,” Hockey NSW participation manager Blair Chalmers said. 

All clinic activities are designed to be non-oppositional and all the sporting equipment is provided. 

“We hope clinics like this will raise the profile of hockey in schools and increase registration for local hockey clubs,” Mr Chalmers said. 

The clinics are run jointly with the Macquarie Sports Foundation to provide free gear to the students – a Macquarie Sports-branded stick, ball and hat – providing an inlet and cost reduction for those kids who would like to pick up the sport after the session.

Gum Flat teacher, Sharon Irwin, said that like Gilgai Public School, they took all their students from kindergarten to Year 6 to the clinic which followed shortly after swimming lessons at Inverell pool in the morning.

“Our children absolutely loved it,” she said explaining the Gum Flat’s 24 pupils remained well behaved despite the busy day. 

Ms Irwin said the trainers not only had good knowledge of the sport but also catered well to the children’s learning needs. 

“There was a good ratio of people delivering the lessons to the children,” she said. “It was well structured.” 

Students were supplied with water in the heat, given frequent breaks and provided with individual as well as group instruction. 

“They finished up by having mini games in age groups so the little kids didn’t have to take on the big kids,” Ms Irwin said. 

“There were a lot of kids there and they only had once hockey field [but] they catered for the safety issues.”

Ms Irwin said the school participated in the clinic because they believe it is important for children to develop different skills in a variety of sports so “they can make up their mind about what they would like to play later”. 

“It’s also important for them socially to develop skills by interacting with kids from other schools,” she said. 

The Hockey NSW team headed to Moree on Thursday where they expected around 110 children to participate in their next clinic.