Footscray Hockey Club

Just Hockey is having a massive stocktake sale with huge savings over their entire range. Make sure you got check it out.

http://www.justhockey.com.au

The hectic month of June is over for this year and the FHC Board of Directors is starting to plan for the Men’s National Veterans Championships being held at our grounds in October. To all the helpers that have volunteered their time over the last month, thank you for your time and effort. With out the members/parents pitching in to help the club could not achieve the reputation that is has as the best place to play hockey in Victoria.

I have been asked by some members why we have to give up our grounds and rooms to hold these events as they must cost us to hire other grounds and move our games. That’s correct, there is a cost involved in holding these events but the income received more than out weighs the costs to the club. In June we hosted 3 large events, the Lacrosse Down Under Cup, Men’s Country week and Junior Country week. The club received around $10,000 in ground hire fee’s for these 3 events, while our Canteen Manager managed to bank over $15,000. So for the small inconvenience we suffered, the club and its members are well rewarded. The money raised from holding these events are what keep our fees down, go towards the new training area, our new grounds, player training and keeping the club running. They are also more than helpful when we approach the State Government or the Council to help fund new grounds as we are not seen as just a Hockey Club, but as a Club that is willing to share it good fortune with other sports, schools etc. I hope that helps you all under stand why the Board of Directors supports these type of events and why we call for helpers on these occasions.

Which brings me to the next issue, the National Veterans Championship in October, anybody that has called into the club during 1 of the above mentioned events knows the amount of people we need to cater for and service. Even our largest home week-end with 8 teams playing comes no way near what we will have to contend with. For 13 days from September 28th to October 10th FHC will host 16 games a day or 640 players plus support staff at the grounds from 8am till 8pm. They will all want to be fed and watered, this is a huge task and the club is asking for your support to enable us to do this. At present we have some of the members that have taken 2 weeks off work to help out which is great, but what ever time you can give will be appreciated. A poster asking for help will go up shortly and I hope your name will be on it. At the present moment I have 69 teams entered for the Championships so it will be the largest Hockey event ever held in Victoria and you can be part of it and support your Club.

You will have probably already noticed the dead trees removed from the southern and northern ends of the grounds and new trees have just been planted to replace them. Please take care when parking your car at the southern end of the F2 ground. Algae on F1 will be sprayed and removed this weekend while there is no hockey on. The new junior training area is looking spectacular and we hope to keep it in top condition, so please I encourage all members to clean their footwear before entering the training area.
Have you lost any items of clothing recently? Why not look in our overflowing lost property box just inside the door on the F2 side. The up coming Vets Championships in October will be keeping me very busy with jobs around the club. If anyone has any spare time to help with maintenance, gardening or general cleaning please feel free to contact me.

Thank you to those very diligent members who have paid all or majority of their 2009 fees already! A reminder to everyone that next payments are due by round 11. Those members who have NOT paid anything off their fees will not be allowed to participate after round 11.

Fee Collectors

Ladies : Nicole Virtuoso 0424 132 715 Alison Clegg, Jess Lloyd
Mens: Lynn Gale 0419 307 412
Juniors: Heather Shaw 0409 173 334
Vets: Karen Veitch 0419 110 943
Lorraine Quinlan can take fees in the canteen

The new uniforms are on their way and members will be notified once they have arrived. Members may notice that State League Men, State League and Pennant Ladies are wearing the new shirt already, however the rest of the club is still in the 2008 playing strip. New socks are readily available for $8

New polo shirts ($28), t-shirts ($22) rugby tops ($45) and the red hoodies ($30) are available.

75th Commemorative Merchandise for Sale

Glasses with 75th Logo $7.50
Stubby Holders $10
Keyring $5
Badge $5
75th Commemorative Ball Slide Show & Past Videos DVD $5

*** SPECIAL *** 75th Commemorative Show Bag

Glass + Badge + Commemorative DVD Jelly Beans = $15

We have finally recruited 2 more GK’s to fill our sides, thank you to Jo Torr and Isabella Skillbeck for donning the pads! Emily Wardeiner is training our GK’s every second Tuesday.

The success of the State League sponsorship program continues, the State League Teams are now wearing warm up shirts before the match and after match polo shirts with sponsor’s logos. In the next week or so you will see them wearing the new FHC tracksuit, and finally – the correctly made new playing shirts, skorts and shorts. The Match Day Programs will be on sale every home game for $2 from any of the State League squad —they include fixtures, player/coaches profiles, sponsor’s details, venue melway refs and more! BUY YOURS TODAY!

Reminder to all Team Managers to get their team/parents to fill in the Mitre 10 spreadsheet form and submit back to Rico or Nicole Virtuoso please. Families will receive a Mitre 10 card where they can receive a 5% discount at the checkout. Please ask your team manager if you have not filled in the form. Well done to the State League Men—the first to submit their spreadsheet form back!