25th NZ Secondary Schools Underwater Hockey Championships 2009

COMPETITION DETAILS

When: 4.30 PM Wednesday 2 September to 3.30 PM Sunday 6 September 2009
Where: Welcome Meal, Christchurch Convention Centre,
QEII Aquatic Centre, Christchurch
Team Entries Due: Friday 26th June 2009
Entry Fee: TBC
Welcome Function Meal Tickets:
Tournament Organiser Contact: Tristan Reynard
email: schools@underwaterhockey.org.nz

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

The 25th NZ Secondary School Underwater Hockey Championships will feature up to 80 teams from schools from all over NZ and around the world. The tournament size has been doubled to celebrate 25th anniversary of the championships for 2009 only and set the World record for the largest number of teams participating in a single Underwater Hockey Championship.

International Teams should make contact with the tournament organiser as soon as possible to secure accommodation and a team entry position. We are expecting 1000 participants across the 4 grades and will operate 4 courts during the Championships however this will place demands on Christchurch budget accommodation.

Senior Girls (open to all female students under the age of 19 as of 1st January),
Junior Girls (open to female students under the age of 15 years as of 1st January),
Senior Open (Open to all students under the age of 19 as of 1st January)
Junior Open (open to all students under the age of 15 years as of 1st January).

The Championships are run under the Polices and Guidelines given by the New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council. Local Area Co-ordinators hold copies of these guidelines.

Teams will be awarded medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The Best Overall Placed School Plate is up for grabs again and will go to the school who gets the best combined results in the four grades.

All Teams will have an award for each team's best/ fairest player as selected by each team's management. The award recipients name must be advised to the Control Table by 6PM Saturday 5th September 2009.

Best Overall Placed School Plate is awarded to the school with the highest total of points across all grades. Points are awarded according to placing in the top 6. Points are 9,6,4,3,2,1 respectively.

The Fair Play trophy will be awarded to the team that shows the best sportsmanship by the host Auckland Underwater Hockey Association.

Tournament Teams will be selected that comprise of the top 10 players selected from each grade.

Coaches of the team in the grade will select the tournament teams. A senior coach in the grade will co-ordinate the selection and hands a list of 10 players to the tournament organiser prior to the prize giving. It is the responsibility of every coach to check the list prior to the prize giving. The selection responsibility lies with the coaches in each grade.

Look forward to seeing you all at the Championships.

__________________
Tristan Reynard
Schools/Chair
Underwater Hockey NZ
www.underwaterhockey.org.nz

Sounds pretty awesome Tristan - one question: is the the largest underwater hockey tournament ever?

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Faster than a speeding puck...

who would know? SA or french nationals sound like they would be the biggest... how many teams have been involved in the past?

nice to aim for though isn't it?

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Sounds very big and good.
And 25 years......and 1000 participants......very very very very good.....
Good work and i hope to see photos from it. maybe a pod-cast?


THis part i copy for my-self. Its a nice guidline:

Quote:

Senior Girls (open to all female students under the age of 19 as of 1st January), Junior Girls (open to female students under the age of 15 years as of 1st January), Senior Open (Open to all students under the age of 19 as of 1st January) Junior Open (open to all students under the age of 15 years as of 1st January).

I can only dream about that bigg in the Netherlands.


As example:
In Oktober we have a school toernament were i hope to have10 Tilburgse Teams participating in.
(Schoolkids that have never played Underwaterhockey. And that in 1 city...)
Thats is for example the size from the compleet junior competition in the Netherlands.

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When you are good, then you are not bad..

Not the ones that I have attended.. Not too sure how many grades there are in the SA nationals, but I think that it is in the order of 30-40 teams over 3-4 grades. French nationals (one tournament then) is 3 grades of 8 teams or so. 80 teams is massive.

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Faster than a speeding puck...

will be great fun for those who can make it. in fact if adults would like to be involved, i'm sure teams could be found for them to help coach, there will be reffing aplenty and organisery things to do as well.

these comps are always so good because there is just so much enthusiasm from the kids, it's pretty motivational stuff.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Hi Guys,

Sa Jnr Nationals wishes we could boast with that many numbers of jnr's...
But unfortuantely were taking a dip in our players trying to commit to the sport, we would robably only have like 10 teams or so currently... When i started in '99 we had greater numbers, but its alot tougher now to get the jnr's involved especially when there is a greater interest for Rugby, Soccer Tennis and Field Hockey as well as the Schools not as keen to inroduce a new sport. But we will find that light. lol.
I have sent the info to our organisers etc. Hopefully than can encorouge the Jnr Coaches to send players to learn more from NZ .

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Regards,

Marius

"Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverence" - Samuel Johnson

don't worry Nandos, 40 teams is a **** load of teams

in aus the most teams i've seen at a nationals is 4 or 5...

Soz todd... typo... at a jnr's nationals bout 10 teams...

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Regards,

Marius

"Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverence" - Samuel Johnson

Jols,

From the email discussions the largest SA interclubs was just over 60 teams. I beilieve if we reach the 80 teams it will be the largest UWH tournament ever held. I would like to get this certified as the largest as it would be great for promotion and media coverage in New Zealand.

Currently we have 3 qualifing tournaments held around the second weekend in June in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. This year we had 73 teams competing. With 26 teams in Auckland, 29 teams in Wellington and 18 teams attending in Christchurch.

The teams qualify for school nationals with 40 teams across the 4 grades. For next year I hope to relax the qualification system to allow all teams that want to attend to be included in the event.

This years draw is located here
http://www.underwaterhockey.org.nz/2...tdrawfinal.pdf

Note for Sven- The age group is Under 19 for the senior grades but in reality the players are all under 18 as at 1 January each year. We have this rule as it is part of the NZ Secondary school sports council guidelines.

__________________
Tristan Reynard
Schools/Chair
Underwater Hockey NZ
www.underwaterhockey.org.nz