Board Communication Aug 7

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7 August, 2024
Kia ora hockey whānau,
We’ve had a busy past month with the new board reviewing the past years work and formulating a plan moving forward.  The Club survey has provided some interesting feedback and work on’s which we will review at next weeks Club Presidents meeting.
At this stage the Board is working on reviewing the IHNZ Policies and Procedures, the 2025 Calendar of Events, Operational matters and a lot of work on the Conference model to ensure we provide better quality hockey opportunities for our members going forward.

• Nationals Blocks:

Planning for Nationals is well underway with 65 teams entered to date across 11 grades.
The Block schedule has had a few movements at the edges to accommodate all the entries and is as follows for the 2024 IHNZ National Championships and to this stage we have asked all clubs to confirm their entries by Wednesday afternoon.
On Monday 19 August the draw will be distributed along with a fantastic new merchandise list of IHNZ developed on rink and off rink clothing -  tees, hoodies, shorts, playing jerseys and pants going live!   Watch out for the link on Monday 19^th with the draw!
All items are available for purchase via Esports  – pictures and sizing charts will be available and if you order by 31 August, items will be guaranteed to be available for delivery at Nationals.
                                         
Epic Warrior League:
After the success of the revived Centre Ice sponsored  Team Mission and Team Bauer for the 2023 season and the players telling us that Interconference champs didn’t hold the appeal at that age grade, IHNZ developed in conjunction with both Epic and Warrior Hockey, a tournament for 2024 for the 16 and 18 age groups. 
In 2024 this is a one off event but in 2025 will be expanded to a league series of events throughout the inline season.
This weekend the Hamilton Devils host the inaugural Epic Warrior Tournament with over 50 of that age grades players forming competitive teams.     Exhibition teams were selected by the sponsors to form their teams.
Look out for this being streamed live – our thanks to Epic and Warrior for their support of the 18u grades and their acknowledgement of  inline hockey in what is a grade where we lose a number of players.
 
Female League Weekends:
After a very successful first round in New Plymouth, round two moves to Kilbirnie 31 August - 1 September.  At this stage the schedule is in its final stages and will be distributed as soon as able to all those registered.
 
IHNZ NPL Round 3:
New Plymouth Ravens will host Round 3  which  promises to showcase some fantastic hockey as we have all 6 teams vying for finals honours where only the top 4 will make finals weekend on September 14-15 in Hamilton.
This event will be run in conjunction with the InterConference event so our younger players will get to watch our premier players in action!    Being 3 weeks prior to Nationals makes it an exciting lead up to Premier honours!


Junior Interconference:
The Junior Interconference Event Expressions of Interest for players and coaches are out with the event scheduled also in Hamilton over the weekend of 14 – 15 September. 
Four grades are scheduled to play  - 10U, 12U, 14U, Junior Women  - look for the draw to be out by Monday 2 September.    At this stage we have the Kokako and Tui conferences both confirmed to play in best of 3 games series at each grade.
We invite you to come support and watch our up and coming players battle it out for Interconference supremacy and being the first grades to wear our new Interconference jerseys!
 
Policy Update:
Nothing so glamourous as rewriting policy but is imperative within sport so please keep an eye out on the links posted for these updates.
If in doubt please ask your club or check the IHNZ website where the old and new have been split out for ease of reading.
Inline Hockey New Zealand - Powered By esportsdesk.com
 
Christchurch Alpine Ice Rink Incident:
Last week there was a tragic accident at the Alpine Ice Rink resulting in the death of a teenage skater. Work Safe are currently investigating the incident and IHNZ will follow this closely and ensure our rink policies and safety procedures meet the outcomes of the investigation.
 
For any questions you may have, please send via the usual channel to gm@inlinehockeynz.org.nz .    Enjoy your week and we look forward to bringing you our further updates as soon as able.
Regards
IHNZ Board