Windsor Knights
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Plans
“From an Ice Hockey perspective,
we’re introducing two new teams. The
Development Team will continue as
normal as it has. The new Elite Team
will take the best players and will pit
them against the best other recreational
hockey teams. The idea behind this is
that the more talented players will get to
remain competitive.
The Development Team will continue
to play games against similar level teams
but will also have an incentive to push
themselves to improve to try and make
the Elite Team. The Veterans Team will
be a team of over 35’s who will play less
games than the other teams but will give
an opportunity for people who may not
necessarily have time to commit to the
sport full time but still want to be in and
around the game.
The number 1 aim across all teams is
to keep getting people involved. There’s
simply no reason why someone can’t
play hockey in some form.”
Youth
“From an Ice Hockey perspective,
we can’t accept players under 18 at the
moment. If anyone under 18 is looking
to play the sport, we always point them
towards the Slough Jets who have a
youth programme.
The Inline team is a different
prospect as we’ve got both Senior and
Junior teams. In reality, both clubs have
20 Issue 16
been around for a year so we’ve not had
the opportunity to bring them through
yet but that’s definitely the plan.”
Community
We’re absolutely a community club!
We’re very much an inclusive club.
We’re a local team filled with people all
around the community. We’re always
looking to get people involved on or off
the rink.
Even if people don’t want to
get involved playing, we offer the
opportunity to get involved and support
the club in other ways. All our games are
played in a public space and entry
is free to everyone who wants to
just pop by and watch.”
Challenges/Ambitions
“Rising
costs
forcing people away
from the game is a
major challenge. Ice
especially. It costs
nearly £500 to host
a game which has
to be the highest
of any amateur
sport. It’s already a
very expensive sport
with the purchase of
kit, coupled with late
training times that make
player
retention
single
biggest challenge. That being
said, player retention is something we
tend to do well. People stick around
because they see what we’re trying to do
and they want to be a part of it.
Our ambition is to continue to grow
and offer hockey to as many people as
possible. There’s potential to start even
more teams, Junior Ball Hockey, Sledge
Hockey, Women’s Hockey, they are all
realistic options in the future. At the
moment, all of our teams are open to
both male and female players but if
there’s a Men’s or a Women only league
that we could enter them in, and there’s
enough interest, why not?”