EVO Hockey is 1 year old!
One year ago yesterday, on 30 June 2015, EVO Hockey was born! Our journey so far has involved a huge amount of hard work and no small amount of fun. To be honest, this post should have gone out yesterday, but was delayed because the EVO team were up long into the night discussing other EVO Hockey work and exciting future plans. It is this effort and dedication that we hope will stand us in good stead for the future.
It's amazing to reflect on how far we have come in such a short space of time. In our first 12 months, we have been privileged to experience the following:
- Coaching and inspiring almost 1000 young players, giving them the opportunity to get to know and work with some of the best players in the world. Helping top junior players Evolve Their Game and encouraging total beginners to take up the sport.
- Welcoming top-class internationals, junior internationals and coaches - with playing philosophies and ideas from all over the world - into the EVO coaching family. These include a 5 x World Player of the Year; an Olympic gold medallist, 5 x Olympian and World Player of the Year; 4 German internationals; 5 Great Britain internationals; 2 South African internationals; multiple Olympians and many more. EVO is delighted that 7 members of the EVO coaching team will be representing their countries in the Olympics at Rio 2016.
- Taking over the social media accounts of hockey's world governing body - the FIH - on two occasions, broadcasting our camps to many thousands of people all around the world (see 2 examples below - featuring a World Player of the Year, the current Germany captain and an England U18 international goalkeeper!).
- Supporting numerous England and Great Britain junior international players with sponsorship, coaching development, player development and mentoring work.
- Being invited to demonstrate at the Hockey Champions Trophy, London, in June 2016.
Thank you
Just over a year ago, EVO Hockey was no more than an idea. We wanted to create a community, of both junior and senior players and coaches, with creativity, innnovation and diversity of thought at its core. We wanted players to experience playing and coaching philosophies from different hockey cultures around the world - different ideas, underpinned with coaching excellence. We wanted to engage, enthuse and inspire - encouraging players and increasing self-belief. We wanted to connect young players on a personal level with some of the greatest hockey athletes in the world.
We have built solid foundations for these goals and have progressed much more quickly than we could ever have hoped. We are (we hope!) developing a good reputation for coaching excellence, which we will continue working hard to enhance even more.
None of this would have been possible without the support of you - the EVO players and parents who have been willing to take a chance on us, who have stuck with us and provided feedback, positive and constructive, to enable us to develop. Your positivity and enthusiasm has been amazing and continues to spur us on.
And to the EVO coaches - thank you. Thank you for believing in us and buying into our vision. Thank you for your effort and dedication. We are privileged to have got to know so many talented and creative people. We look forward to continuing to work with you to raise the bar again.
The future?
We are not getting complacent. We are delighted with our start, but we have so much more to do. We have some hugely exciting plans for the next 12 months - including negotiations to bring some unbelievable world-beating players into the EVO family. We will hopefully have some extremely exciting announcements on this, so watch this space!
Thank you again for being part of our journey, we truly appreciate all the love and support!
Omar, Chris & the EVO Hockey team x