NEWS FROM THE IHA BOARD – JULY 2021

Published Thu 15 Jul 2021

On 10 June 2021, IHA hosted a President’s telecon where each Member Association (MA) provided an update on hockey in their State/Territory. The pandemic is providing many challenges to each MA, however, it was pleasing to hear the enthusiasm throughout Australia to continue “pivoting”, aspiring to provide as many hockey opportunities to all our individual members.

The Board would like to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers in every MA who are tirelessly working in the background during these challenging times.

Ice Hockey Australia Board

2. WORLD PARA ICE HOCKEY MEETING

Bill Siegloff, Interim Para Director at IHA attended the World Para Meeting online on 21-22 June 2021. Tim Mathews was in attendance to represent Paralympics Australia. The meeting covered new governance proposals for Para Ice Hockey.

There were proposed rule changes with the Pool Structures. Currently, there are 16 registered nations competing in Para Ice Hockey. A Pool consists of the top 8 teams, B Pool is the next 6 teams and C Pool is the remaining 2 teams. When B Pool is played the lowest ranking team is delegated to C Pool until the C Pool World Championships where the winner of C Pool advances into B Pool. One proposal is to combine B and C. The new B Pool would be split into 2 different sub Pools and compete against more teams at the same event as the higher placed teams. This would help the emerging nations to improve their games and learn from the higher-ranked nations. Currently, a C Pool World Championships only consists of 3 games and it seems unreasonable to send an international team to play in 2 games. More rule changes were discussed including increasing games from 15 minute periods to 20 minute periods and increasing the number of players on each team.

World Para Ice Hockey are encouraging more females players. We want to support higher-level females represent Australia in the National Open team. Females are allowed to compete in the World Championships, if a team selects a female they are allocated an extra position on the team roster. This is a great idea as it helps boost the player bench and encourage females into the sport. WPIH are working on a women’s international showcase and at this stage, there are only 3 nations that have expressed representation. The plan in the long term is to have a women’s division of Para Ice Hockey represented at the Paralympics, the consensus is there are not enough female programs currently to present a case to include the division in the 2030 Paralympics.

The proposed rule changes will be forwarded to nations to be voted on later in 2021.

3. WOMEN LEADERS IN SPORT

Tarah Rocha, Executive Officer at IHA was successful with her application to Sport Australia for the Women Leaders in Sport Grant 2021. The grant awarded Tarah a place on the Strategic Leadership course in Brisbane at the Australian Institute of Management. Tarah successfully completed the course and is now part of an online forum and series of workshops over 6 weeks with Sport Australia. The workshops include topics on leadership, building teams, leading self, leading culture, and professional development.

Tarah comments, “I am honoured to have received the Women Leaders In Sport Grant through Sport Australia. It has been a wonderful opportunity to connect and learn with women from all sectors of Sport in Australia. The course I attended in Brisbane on Strategic Leadership helped me to understand an array of leadership concepts whilst learning with other thought leaders in sport, business and government roles. The program includes mentoring and training by inspiring facilitators. Sport Australia have done a fantastic job with this initiative, and I encourage anyone interested in the program to apply for the next round.”

For more information on Women Leaders in Sport click on the link below:

https://www.sportaus.gov.au/grants_and_funding/women_leaders_in_sport

4. UPCOMING ROLES AT IHA

As you are all aware, IHA operates through the combined efforts of many volunteers. As we continue the journey of implementing the new Constitution and striving to deliver the IHA Strategic Plan, additional roles are identified.
Therefore, over the next few weeks, expressions of interest for the following roles will be advertised and we encourage any member with expertise in these areas and a passion to contribute to developing hockey in Australia to apply:

1. National Championships Portfolio Director
2. National Officiating Scheduling Manager
3. Technical Officiating Analyst
4. Australian Junior Ice Hockey League (AJIHL) Portfolio Director

5. IHA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The IHA Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled for Saturday 24 July 2021. At the AGM, IHA will present the 2021 Annual Report, Financial Statements and the Independent Auditor’s Report. In the next Hockey Hub newsletter, we will provide an overview of the AGM and the reports tabled.

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