Once the government gave the ‘Go ahead’ to allow outdoor sports to restart the Kelso club jumped at the chance to get its youngsters back playing and its coaches back coaching. A very long lockdown was put to good use by the club with several planning meetings and zoom calls involving the Scottish Hockey rep Chris Anderson. This meant that the club were well versed in the guidelines and rules set down by the government and Scottish Hockey.
Live Borders facilities manager Mark Foryth and Dez Wilson locality manager were superb in setting the opening of the pitches in motion and did so in a couple of days. We were very grateful that they allowed us to use the facilities as it was also being used by the SBC hub to cater for front line workers children as well as making hundreds of carry out meals.
Four quadrants sectioned off with our new ropes and 2 m safety zone in the middle of each of the four pitches meant that 4 groups could be taken at one time on the Kelso High School Pitches. From 9-10.30am on both weeks (Tuesday – Thursday ) we had U8’s, U10’s and U12’s while in the latter sessions 11am -1pm we had the U14’s and U16’s. Numbers had to be curtailed due to the 10 player/1 coach rule which meant that the players had to work really hard. Our main aim was for the players to have fun and allow them to adjust to being back together playing sport after such a long time. They also received considerable 1-1 coaching due to the smaller numbers in each group. Coaches and Club players, Kirsty Veitch, Emma Mack, Ginny Stewart, James Grant, Lynn Young and Mary Weir were all involved in the coaching over the 6 days. Mary and Lynn also took on the new role of Covid Officer to oversee the first aid and Covid safety of all the participants and coaches.

All the parents were helpful at having to use the new online booking schemes as well as having to adhere to social distancing and hand washing rules for them during drop off and pick up times. So many new, different guidelines and rules to follow was certainly challenging for organiser Mary Weir but we managed them fine. One of the more tricky areas was that the players were not allowed to pick up the balls with their hands making ball juggling and other 3 D skills very tricky indeed. Feedback from parents has been terrific saying how much their children enjoyed being back in team sports, loving their hockey and helping them to adjust to being amongst others again.

The club would like to thank everyone for supporting the camp during these very strange times and to the players and coaches for working so hard over the course of the 2 weeks. At the end of the last session the players were reminded that while there might be no competitive games for some time, club training would be starting up again on Thursday 13th August for U14, U16 and adult sessions. For the younger ones it is on Sundays and Tuesdays starting Sunday 16th August. A booking system might need to be used to ensure that numbers attending stay within the governing bodies guidelines. For more information about Kelso Hockey please see our FB page Kelso Hockey club official or Web site www.kelsohockeyclub.com

Lynn Young (Club coach)