By Marie Dale
As the 2024 hockey season ends, it’s time to review a season full of rewards, firsts, achievements — and so much fun!
In short, the season was amazing.
What the numbers show
- 433 games played by Hautapu Sports hockey teams in 2024.
- 304 superstar players representing Hautapu Sports.
- 81 volunteer coaches, managers, umpires and administrators it took to run the season.
What the numbers don’t show
- The smiles, the fun, the sportsmanship, the teamwork and the skills on display every week — priceless!
Our season started on March 17 with the inaugural senior hockey games and concluded on September 1 with an invitational team of intermediate Hautapu Sports girls playing a visiting team from Baradene College in Auckland.
Main photo: Players from Hautapu Sports and Baradene College finish the season on a full turf pitch.
Primary teams
Our 24 primary teams played on Fridays at St Peters, Cambridge.
They learned and improved skills, playing 6-a-side hockey on ¼ turfs.
I was fortunate to be able to watch our teams most weeks; it was so rewarding to watch the sportsmanship and teamwork displayed.
For the last week of Cambridge mini-hockey, teams dressed up. Our Hautapu teams and coaches took this on and looked fantastic!
Intermediate teams
Our six intermediate teams played on Fridays at various turfs around the Waikato.
These games were all 6-a-side, plus a fully padded-up goalie on ½ turf.
The step up from primary hockey was big but our teams took this on and played so well.
I was lucky to watch all our teams play throughout the season; the skill and strategy shown by our teams was fantastic.
Most importantly, all our junior teams played with smiles, having fun playing hockey!
Our junior season ended with 11 intermediate girls invited to play Baradene College.
This was an 11-a-side game on a full turf, a new experience for the whole team.
After a quick whiteboard session by coach Woody while they warmed up, our girls did us proud.
Watching the game, you could not tell that the full version of the game was new to them.
Senior teams
Senior hockey was a new experience for our club this year.
We had two bunches of randoms put together into a men’s and a women’s team.
We had players who had never played before, players who have played in recent years, two young men who played juniors for the club, right through to a player who had not played hockey for 40 years.
Our men’s team had an age span of 40 years, with 80% of the team not even born the last time our oldest player played hockey!
From this, we grew into two amazing teams, friendships were forged, skills learned and improved and the amazing results far exceeded any expectations we had when setting up senior hockey.
Alpha Sports Hautapu Womens lost their final 2-1, while Hidden Lake Hotel Hautapu Mens won their final 2-1. Both finals were nail-biters for spectators and fantastic games to watch.
READ MORE: From an idea to two grand finals — how our senior hockey programme took off >>>>
READ MORE: Men’s team wins senior hockey grand final, women’s side finish runners-up >>>>
Thanks to those who made it possible
Hautapu Sports hockey would not be able to happen or to be successful without the countless hours, commitment, passion and support our volunteers give to the club, the superstar players and the team.
I cannot thank our volunteers enough and I am so appreciative of all they do for hockey at our club.
Thanks also to our wonderful sponsors, who made it easier to do what we do.
Let’s do it all again next year. See you all in 2025.
Marie Dale
Marie Dale is Hautapu Sports Club’s director of hockey.
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