Supporting National Growth (SNG) targets coaches and coach educators in our Developing nations. It helps get hockey started in new regions, or provides support to existing regional programmes.
In early 2015 the EHF Coaching group staged a Supporting National Growth (SNG) coach seminar in the Croatian cities of Zagreb and Sveti Ivan Zelina as part of the support package to grow hockey in Croatia. Croatia has a development project called “Hockey outside Zagreb”. 1 young PE student (Nikola Barbaric) from Split attended these seminars and got hooked on hockey.
Nikola Barbaric went back home and shared the knowledge that he had gained with Luka Androja and together they formed a new club, HC Spartanac Split, in May 2015. On 18th December 2015 their new hockey club became officially affiliated to Croatian Hockey Federation and their new team competed for the first time in the Croatian National Indoor Championships later in December.
The last time hockey was played in Split was in 1979 when the city hosted the Mediterranean Cup. So 36 years later hockey has again been introduced to this coastal region.
Croatian Hockey Federation has selected Split region to take part in a twinning project with EHF/KNHB during 2016/17 so we hope that such support will enable them to grow hockey and sustain several clubs in the future
EHF congratulates Croatian Hockey and especially Nikola and Luka for the energies they have shown to develop and grow hockey. Hockey club Spartanac are searching for some indoor hockey side boards. If any club has some used ones that they no longer use please contact norman@eurohockey.org