Resources for Team Managers

Our club team managers play a crucial role in keeping our teams running smoothly during the course of the season.  Our team managers are also an essential  connector between teams and the committee. Feedback from our managers says this is not an onerous role and is a great way to be involved.

Key roles for our team managers

  1. Circulating information from the club and the weekly draw to your team
  2. Being responsible for the teams training gear and club t-shirts
  3. Taking the first aid kit and ice to the game every week, making sure the coach also has access to first aid for training sessions.
  4. Recording the player of the day and providing information to your coach about who has had POD and supporting the coach in ways that they may find useful e.g. helping with subbing etc
  5. Supporting the parents in your team to set up carpooling and ensuring our parents are abiding by the highest standards of sideline conduct.

Frequently asked questions

How can I make communication with my team easy?

Most of our teams use What’s App to communicate throughout the season.  It will take you a few minutes to set up but will make team communication a breeze for the season.   

Download the Wellington Hockey Association (WHA) App and follow them at WHA facebook.  By following WHA on their App and facebook you’ll always be in the loop with what is going on and will be the first to receive any game cancellations via their App.

Follow us on Karori Junior Hockey Club facebook.  We also love to receive team pictures or stories for us to load to our club facebook page.

Keep an eye on our website, we are always working to keep the front page up-to-date with the latest information and event dates. 

We also suggest you pop our Co-ordinator of Managers mobile phone number and email address in your phone so you can contact them easily if you need to at anytime during the season.

Health and Safety

The most important job at hockey is to keep our young players safe.  This job requires a team effort with the club, coaches, team managers, parents and umpires all working together to promote and sustain a safe environment.

The key job for a team manager in relation to health and safety is to ensure the team has access to the first aid kit at practice and at Saturday games every week.  In the first aid supplies you will need ice.  Some managers choose to add to their bag, instant ice and spray ice.  This works for those of us who can occasionally forget to grab the ice bag out of the freezer.

For more information about the key health and safety please click here to go through to our club health and safety information designed for everyone involved in keeping our kids safe.  Health and Safety info for coaches

Replacing a team member in year 7 & 8

If your team needs a replacement because you have players away please contact the Co-ordinator of Managers who can contact the manager of the team immediately below your grade.  There are a variety of WHA rules surrounding who can play up and how this works and the Co-ordinator of Managers is there to assist you navigate this.

Please note the following important things:

  • Players are not permitted to play two games a weekend (except goalies), so when a child fills in for a team they will not be able to play for their team.  If this means that team is then short they need to pull a player from the grade below them.
  • No player can “play up” a grade more than 3 times in a season.
  • If you need to use a year 6 for an 11-aside game, KJHC need to get special dispensation from Wellington Hockey.  This is required in advance in every situation and the request needs to be accompanied by a rationale/good reason for the need.  If you do need to use a year 6 please provide us with as much notice as possible so we can request dispensation for you.
  • Year 6’s are not permitted to play P1 games and if they are found to have done this Wellington Hockey can remove our P1 team from the competition for the following season.

Replacing a team member in year 3 – 6

The best bet is to email or phone the manager with a team in the same grade as your team.  If this doesn’t work you will need to pull a player up from the grade below.  If you are not sure what to do or who to contact, you contact the convenor email address.

What are the rules for defaulting?

Only WHA as tournament director can cancel games.  If WHA does cancel a division or the entire draw this will be notified via the WHA App.

WHA makes the call on weather cancellations, these happen rarely although do occur on occasions. We recommend you check the WHA App and Facebook page if weather is doubtful.

If for some reason you cannot field a team, please urgently contact the Convenor.  Sometimes we are able to make arrangements for our games to be played to avoid clashes with events such as the annual Wellington College Open day.

If weather conditions are unsafe at the time of a game at the venue, please discuss this with the opposition umpire and coach and work to make decisions to keep kids safe as the number one priority.  You can delay the start, stop the game, shorten the game or cancel the game to ensure the safety of all players.  Its important decisions relating to the weather are made at the venue at the time of the game not prior.

What is the clubs policy on cancelling training

Our Club policy is we do not cancel training.  Our policy is referred to as the “When its raining we are still training” or the “We never close” policy.  There are a variety of reasons why we have this policy including:

  • regular spaced practice is essential to support players learning and acquisition of skills over the duration of the season;
  • often the weather is fickle and can change hour-to-hour or venue-to-venue, making predicting the weather in advance of training start time impossible;
  • everyone has different thresholds for what they consider suitable training conditions, so we suggest younger kids are offered the option to opt out of training in poor conditions, while going ahead maintains the opportunity for those keen to proceed;
  • we observe there are lots of reasons training could be cancelled and with a training season of only 15-19 weeks its important to find reasons and ways to keep training whenever feasible;
  • some families choose hockey over other winter sports because it is played on artificial turf and therefore not subject to weather disruption like some other codes.

If you are ever in doubt about whether it is safe to go ahead with training, contact the Convenor and you will be assisted with your decision making and communications to your teams to ensure no child is ever accidentally dropped off to a cancelled training session.  As a guideline conditions below 5degrees accompanied by wind or rain may require cancellation or shortening of a training session.  Children have weaker thermoregulation (the ability for the body to maintain body temperature) compared to adults so coaches and families need to ensure kids are suitably dressed for winter training.

If your coach is unavailable to take a practice, the Convenor can assist you to find a replacement where possible.  In most situations we can find another coach to cover a practice, or the team can be offered an alternate practice to go to.

Who provides the oranges?

It is not essential or necessary for players to have a half time snack.  Players need to bring drink bottles and team management can focus on teaching kids the importance of hydration during exercise.  In terms of the wider sports nutrition picture, its important players eat breakfast before their game on Saturday and likewise have a snack before coming to training during the week.

What if I have a problem or something I’m not sure how to handle?

The Convenor is there to actively support and troubleshoot with you.  Please alert the Convenor straight away if you have any difficulties in your team, we have experience in helping teams resolve problems or giving teams additional support.

Please also contact us if you experience any concern with an opposition team or you have a child or adult involved in an accident or injury.

There are no dumb questions, and we would expect managers to regularly be in contact with the Convenor throughout the season.

Building team spirit and having fun!

Our end of season survey in 2018 showed that having a good team spirit and playing with a nice team is one of the key reasons that players enjoyed the season – this was mentioned by significantly more players than winning or even playing games. Team managers can help with team spirit and ensuring teams gel and have fun together – some ways managers have done this in the past include:

  • Having a get together before the season starts to learn other team members names and get to know them
  • Staying for 10 minutes after training or games to have an ice-block or meeting at a local café for a hot chocolate
  • Using any weeks where teams have a bye to plan an activity together such as bowling, laser strike or paintball.

If you have any suggestions or have found ways to foster and encourage team spirit, we’d love to hear about them. Also, please send the convenor any photos of team building initiatives for us to share with others on Facebook.

We are very grateful to our team of managers, they are the glue of our club, binding teams and the club together.  A great team of team managers always leads to a smooth and enjoyable season.  Thank you!