Recently on a renowned Canadian TV show a special news promotion to coincide with the Rio Olympics featured a segment on field hockey. What was surprising about it was the TV presenters stunning ignorance of field hockey as a sport which made me realise the difficult plight of developing field hockey in Canada.
There is no doubt Canadians eat and sleep hockey as it is Canada’s official national winter sport, most popular spectator sport and it’s most successful in international competition. There are over 550,000 registered players in Canada. However I am not talking about field hockey it is of course ice hockey. Field hockey cannot boost anywhere the participant numbers that would equate to 3% of ice hockey participation. There are approximately 18,000 field hockey players across the country – 9,000 of which are a part of high school field hockey programs.
Therefore it’s not easy to grow the game of field hockey in Canada, but having a team in the Olympics certainly helps. To many Canadians field hockey is an unknown so when the recent Canadian Men’s field hockey team participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics it was an ideal time to promote field hockey to a Canadian audience who may be in the most ignorant about the sport we love. Not since 2008 has the Canadian team had such an opportunity for TV airtime, and the people involved were hoping this would lead to a spike in field hockey participation.
What resulted from this allocated TV coverage on field hockey is monumental in educating and promoting hockey to the Canadian population and as such thought worthy to bring to the attention of Go Hockey News readers.
Promoting the game of hockey to the public – CLICK ON PHOTO
Promoting the game of hockey in schools
The National men’s team in the lead up to Rio Olympics were utilised to promote field hockey to school children. In this meaningful video you will see their dedication to grow field hockey in Canada and the positive reaction of the school children
Despite ice hockey’s stranglehold on “hockey” in Canada Field Hockey in Canada has progressed significantly since its inception in the 1960’s. The following interest information is a synopsis of Field Hockey Development in Canada.
ABOUT FIELD HOCKEY CANADA
Dr Harry Warren is recognised as the father of field hockey in Canada. He is accredited as being instrumental in the following
- in 1956, involved in the planning, organizing and financing required to send Canada’s first women’s field hockey team to the IFWHA World Tournament in Australia
- Established National Men’s Association and was the founding President from 1961-64 and assisted in the creation of the women’s association, was Honorary President from 1962-1991
- Spearheaded effort resulting in Canadian Olympic Association recognizing field hockey as Olympic sport in 1964
In 1991, the Canadian men’s and women’s programs united under the national umbrella of Field Hockey Canada to share funding and infrastructure, and to unite leadership – ultimately transitioning two programs, which had worked hard independently to succeed, into one national entity. .Since the 1961 The Canadian Field Hockey Association has developed 8 provincial hockey associations which then have further organisational structures. As with other countries CHA has established player, coaching and officiating pathways to grow the sport. The coaching model is worthy to study below.
CHA is represented at international events through the following representations
- Men’s and women’s National Teams
- Men’s and Women’s Senior National Squads
- Men’s and Women’s Junior Development Squads
- Masters Hockey
- Indoor Hockey
The National Men’s team is coached by Anthony Farry and the National Women’s team by Ian Rutledge (former Australian and New Zealand High Performance Coach).
For further information about Field Hockey in Canada go to
