HC Victory staged the Eurohockey Para Hockey Festival linked to the Trifinance EuroHockey Championships in 2013 so it is pleasing to read that they recently staged a G Hockey workshop for several clubs across Belgium who now wish to start Hockey for Learning Disability players.
Only 1 year ago HC Victory was in the process of developing Disability hockey and now they feel confident to share their experiences and thereby help other groups.
Guest speaker was Jan Willemse Regtering from the Netherlands. Jan, himself deaf, inspired the group with his message:
“Hockey is my passion. I have played since I was 7. I am a gymnastic teacher in a school for people who are going to work with disabled people. For the last 5 years I play at H C Alphen who had no G Hockey teams. So I started one and my work became my passion. That is why the KNHB gave me the opportunity to give courses and workshops, and see, I am now in Belgium. ”
The participants, mainly clubs who want to start their own G Hockey team were HC Aalst, Taxandria, Ronse, Keerbergen. In total 15 delegates took part in the workshop, with Cindy Vanduffel, the Technical Coordinator of the Flemish Hockey League who explained: “We have learned a lot about how to deal with disabled and how to organize the training and the matches. It took the whole day and we have been able to make some exercises with a few G hockey players from Victory. All in all, a very positive day.”
The club from Keerbergen, nicknamed the Tigers, are participating in a Rotary day October 11th in Mechelen; an event which is for G athletes only and for the first time there hockey will also be included!
HC Victory will host the upcoming EHF Integration Tournament when 4 top EHL squads and 4 G Hockey squads will play a complete festival from 22-24 August.
The small start made just over 1 year ago in Belgium gains momentum and a legacy begins to be built thanks to the hard work of local volunteers Bernadette Monheim and Bernard Slijper and their team. The EHF is immensely proud and thankful for all their hard work!
Source: Norman Hughes
Education and Development Manager