Dear Parents,

We are very much looking forward to meeting many of you next Sunday 5th September when we resume Junior Hockey for another year.  

Some of you may be aware that there has been a lot of work going on over the past two years to allow us to lay a very badly needed new astro turf pitch up at Naas Sports Centre to replace the existing one.  Finally it has come to fruition and we were given a date by the chosen contractor for them to commence work on Monday 6th September. It has been difficult for contractors to get supplies as many of you will be aware from anywhere in the world at the moment so this is the earliest that the contractor could commit too for us. 

This work will take approx 6 weeks from start to finish.  It will mean our pitch is not available to us for this period of time.  We have arranged with St Mary's Secondary School in Naas that we can now take their pitch for the whole day on  a Sunday to allow us have ALL Junior sessions there.  In addition the Junior Boys will use that pitch on a Friday evening and the 2nd year and U16 girls on Thursday and Tuesdays respectively.

We will start in St Mary's from next Sunday the 5th for everyone. 

As the light will diminish gradually over the coming weeks we will need to start the mid week sessions earlier and we will continue to assess this with our timetable on Sundays also for the later sessions.  St Mary's unfortunately has no lights nor does any other suitable pitch in the area. 

We realise that all of this may inconvenience you or your children during this time however the prize at the end of a beautiful new sand dressed pitch is well worth it for us all.  We hope that for most of you that your children can still attend even if their time has changed.  

Once our pitch is finished we will of course bring 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Years back up to train at the new pitch along with the Junior boys on Fridays.  For anyone with children also playing in the Senior ladies or mens sections they will relay a separate message to you regarding what their plans are. 

I have below for you a list of the Junior training times for the coming weeks.  

ST MARYS NAAS - Sundays from 5th September

U8s - 9am to 10am

Head Coach - Eimear O'Keeffe

U10s - 10:15-11:15am

Head Coach - Sinead Geraghty

5th Class - 11:30-12:30pm

Head Coach - Neil Chapman

6th Class - 12:45-1:45pm

Head Coach - Shane Hogan

1st Years - 1:30-3pm

Head Coach - Niall Purcell

2nd Years - 2:45-4:15pm

Head Coach ' Roy Fitzpatrick

3rd and 4th Years - 4-5:30pm

Head Coach - Richard Stone

St Marys

Tuesdays from 7th Sept

3rd and 4th Year girls - 6pm to 7:30pm

Thursdays from 9th Sept

2nd Year Girls - 6pm to 7:30pm

Fridays from 11th Sept

Junior Boys Hockey - 6pm to 7:30pm

Head Coach - Jason Weir

On Sundays you will notice the 1st to 4th year girls are arriving 15 mins before the end of the previous session.  This is so that they can warm up and be ready to go straight to the pitch once it is free to avail of as much light as possible.

Your childs Head Coach will message you via ClubZap towards the end of this week with your Health Check Questionnaires which must be sent back to them on time.  For the many of you that helped as Covid officers last year thank you. We do still need your help under guidelines from IrIsh Hockey.  If you could let your Head Coach know directly when they message you later this week if you can help out in this regard it would be super.  

We are so looking forward to seeing you all. In advance thank you for your understanding re the pitch and we cannot wait to have you all at the official opening of the new Naas Pitch. 

Kind Regards, 

Kathryn Henderson