Just days out from the beginning of the Hockey NSW Indoor State Championships, Southern Highlands Hockey Incorporated has confirmed that it will field seven teams across five tournaments.
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The championships were originally slated to take place between October and December 2021, before COVID-19 lockdowns began and forced their postponement.
This delay caused widespread uncertainty about the availability of Southern Highlands players, as January is a period in which many had scheduled vacations and looked forward to the first opportunity for travel since prior to the beginning of the lockdowns in August.
SHHI rep coordinator, Dan Parker, said the stop-start nature of the upcoming tournaments meant he had high hopes for the local teams, but little idea of their actual capabilities due to a lack of training.
"As far as expectations, who knows. We've had no preparation," Parker said.
"We had two training sessions last year at the beginning of December and that's about it. It's kind of a 'Hope for the best' situation, this one."
SHHI will send a team to the Open Women's tournament from January 14 to 16, one to the Under 18s Boys tournament from January 21 to 23, one to the Under 18s Girls tournament from January 28 to 30, one to the Men's Masters tournament from February 4 to 6, and three to the Women's Masters tournament from February 11 to 13.
All the listed tournaments will be played at Goulburn's Veolia Arena.
Although Parker said the teams are locked in, even now there is uncertainty about the exact numbers for each squad caused by confusion as to whether the state championships would go ahead following to the explosion in COVID-19 cases recently.
"Everything was wait and see, even to this point right now," he said.
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"Everyone's watching all the COVID stuff going 'How are we even doing anything?' So that's more the consensus of what's going on, but they've assured me that it is going on."
Despite the inopportune preparations, Parker said the squads possess more than enough talent to make a good showing over the next month.
The decisive factor, he said, will be how quickly the sides can gel considering the relatively small amount of preparation they have had.
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