Hockey big hit at school

Hockey PHOTO/FILE

The continued growth of children's hockey in Wanganui will be reflected by the fact that one of the last festival days of the season this Monday will involve a school which had no part in the sport until this year.

Around 100 Faith City School children will take part in the festival day at the Gonville Domain after the ActivePost Small Sticks season finished recently.

This year was the first time Faith City School offered a skills programme run by Hockey Wanganui, which resulted in five teams being raised to play in the midweek primary school competition.

The festival, which will see various goodies given out to the children, has previously been run at the Carlton, Mosston, Gonville, Fordell, and St Marcellin schools as a thank-you from Hockey Wanganui for doing the programme.

"The Festival Day is a chance for the children to try out their new skills on the artificial turf at Gonville Domain," said Michelle Low, Development Officer for Hockey Wanganui.

"They will play a round of games and have some other fun activities."

It will run from 9.30-11am.

Low said junior hockey participation in Wanganui grew a further eight per cent this year.

Last year's dramatic increase saw a further five teams join their Wednesday afternoon primary school competition, now 57 teams, while the decision to move the Intermediate grade from Saturday mornings to Monday afternoons saw 12 teams take part instead of four.

Nationwide, by the end of this year, 65,000 children will have gone through the ActivePost Small Sticks programme since 2011.