Umpires and Coaches

Coach and Umpire Education

Hockey Australia recognises that quality coaching and officiating has a significant influence upon players and their hockey experience. They run Coach and Umpire Training Programs that offer quality presenters/assessors, resources and ongoing professional development, so that coaches and umpires are better equipped to meet the demands of the game.

In Victoria, umpire and coach accreditation is an extremely important element of League Entry Criteria, which sets out minimum numbers of accredited officials that TEM along with all Premier League clubs must adhere to. 

Jo Hughes (Coaches) and Phillip Kennedy (Umpires) are coordinating accreditation and education this year. They have taken on the task of 'cleaning up' the TEM-Hockey Victoria database with records of past and current officials, and are following up members whose accreditation is expired or incomplete.

They are also helping our many coaches and umpires who are not yet accredited, get started on their education journey. Effectively, they are touching base with all officials to find out how the club can help them with their practical skills and self development. 

Its exciting and rewarding to see the results from the club's commitment to these programs:

• Our young umpires are already benefitting from coaching and support, and education/mentor sessions. We've seen amazing improvement already this season with umpires progressing from U10s to U12s, to Friday night junior matches, and on to various levels of senior umpiring.
• Umpires are demonstrating they are keen to learn and work towards accreditation, and we had two attend a recent Level 1 workshop in Frankston. They and others are working towards practical, on field assessments.
• A few weeks ago Leesa invited John Mowat, currently Hockey Australia's Game Education Manager and one of Victoria’s and Australia’s most experienced and successful team and development coaches of the past 30 years, to speak to our junior and senior coaches. He generously shared tips, suggestions and practical advice and resources.

Thank you to these people for their unconditional efforts in supporting our officials this year:

Jo Hughes / Phil Kennedy / Annabel Kennedy / Bruce Cook / Jenny Eager / Isabel Wright / Hugh McLaughlin / Leesa Needham / Claire Douglas / Sam Hill / Penny Senior / Sandra Marshall

Always remember they are all very willing to help at any point if you see something in this for yourself and would like to become involved! 

Ed note: we're allowing Jo and Phil a bit more time to get the records in order, but in the next TEMpo we're pumped to be able to recognise all our accredited officials! Here are the main levels: