Welcome to NCHA Junior Country Championships

Friday, May 17 - Sunday, May 19, 2024

The Junior Country Championships is a fantastic weekend of hockey, played on turf at major hockey centres in Melbourne. Players travel to Melbourne by bus, with teams being transported to hockey grounds during Saturday and Sunday and then home Sunday night. It is a great opportunity to improve skills and meet other players from our NCHA and other associations around the state. A team shirt is supplied but players must supply their own black shorts/skorts and red socks. We would recommend that players stay with the group, and parents are encouraged to volunteer as coaches, managers or helpers. 

In 2024, North Central will be entering a boy and girls’ team in each age group: Under 14 (2010, 2011 or 2012 – 2012 age, please note that priority will be given to older players) play at Essendon Hockey Centre, Under 16 (2008 or 2009) at Greensborough and Under 18 (2007, 2006 or 2005) at the Melbourne Sports Centre’s in Parkville. 

The cost of $250 includes bus travel, accommodation, shirt hire, some meals, team entry fee and supplies. An initial non-refundable deposit of $50 is required with the player registration due 5pm Friday, April 5. PLEASE NOTE: In some instances (if logged in), data can auto complete from previous years - please check that all information and hoodie orders are correct before finishing the registration.

Full payment of the JCC registration fee (payable to your club), hoodie order and adult assistant fee must be made to your club’s JCC Coordinator by Friday, April 26.

Clubs are encouraged to fundraise to help reduce costs for both players and parents, so see your club and offer some assistance. Parents do an amazing job looking after your child – why not help pay their way.

Rules of the JCC weekend

These rules are to promote the safety and enjoyment of players and those around them:

• No caffeine-containing drinks (e.g. Red Bull, Mother, etc.) or alcohol are permitted for the entire weekend. These drinks will be confiscated if found.
• No smoking or vaping.
• Mobile phones are permitted – however they will be collected at 10pm each night by an adult and returned to players in the morning. If parents wish to contact players after 10pm team managers or parent assistants may be contacted.
• All valuables are the responsibility of the players. Please consider leaving earbuds or any other electronic gadgets at home as this weekend is centred around playing hockey and having a good time with other players.
• Inappropriate behaviour will NOT be tolerated. Managers will have no hesitation in ringing parents to come and collect players. Please keep in mind players have agreed to the Players Code of Conduct and many adults have given up their weekend to assist and we will be sharing accommodation with others.

Adults – Coach/Manager/Helper/Umpire

We welcome any assistance with coaching, umpiring, managing or come along as a parent helper. Please indicate if you are willing to assist by registering at the link listed below. This year, the adult registration form is separate to our player nominations, please your indicate your interest at the following link https://www.revolutionise.com.au/northcentralha/events/230654/ choosing your preferred role (and second choice if any) in the position dropdown box. We are only able to continue to compete in this event if we find enough adults to fill these roles. Each team will have a coach, team manager, and at least two parent helpers. The cost to attend JCC is $110 with $50 deposit at the time of your registration. Final payment to each club's JCC Coordinator is Friday, April 26.  

Umpires
Hockey Victoria will be supporting the development of umpires by providing coaching and mentoring throughout the championship for participants. It is recommended that for each team that is entered, one umpire is supplied for the championship from the association. This is a great opportunity for umpire development. Umpires are welcome to stay with the team and need to nominate with us via the adults EOI events link listed above as well as nominating through Hockey Victoria. To register your interest to umpire at the 2024 Junior Country Championships with HockeyVic, please use the link https://www.hockeyvictoria.org.au/surveys/5346/ by 5pm Monday, April 1. 

Socks/Skorts
Thinskin red playing socks will be available for purchase upon registration at a cost of $12.95 per pair.
Black Skorts can also be ordered for $35. Just Hockey currently have a sale on skorts for $29.95 (as at 10/3) if families wish to take advantage of this price and order individually.

 

Hockey Gear

Please note that there will be no opportunity to buy hockey gear at this year's training day. Please look out for NCHA information regarding upcoming Just Hockey pop-up shop dates, or visit Just Hockey online to purchase gear.

 

Hoodies

For the past few years players representing the North Central Hockey Association at the Junior Country Championships in Melbourne have worn red Hoodies with the NCHA logo embroidered on them. We recommend that all players attending the weekend have a JCC Hoodie as it is a way of unifying the teams and ensures easy recognition of our team players. Adults attending the JCC weekend also have the opportunity to purchase the Hoodie or alternatively there is a zip version ($50) for adults only. Hoodies are $45, though check with your club JCC Coordinator to see if there are any second hand hoodies available.

Sizes are as follows-

Kids: K10 K12 K14
Adult’s (Men’s sizing)  S M L XL 2XL 3XL 5XL
Zip Hoodie: (Ladies sizing) 12L-Z 14L-Z 16L-Z (Mens's sizing) S-Z M-Z L-Z XL-Z 2XL-Z 3XL-Z 4XL-Z

Additional Supporter Wear

Once again, we are offering red NCHA supporter caps and beanies as an extra non-compulsory option.

Beanies $14 one size fits all.

Caps $14 one size fits all.

 

Training, Information & Uniform Session

We hope to have a Goalie session and experienced turf coaches at our training day. Training will occur for all teams with three sessions of approximately 45 minutes each. Two with specialist coaches teaching some of the finer skills required for turf and the other session with their coach and uniform fitting.

When: Sunday, May 5

Time: This will be confirmed once we have details of specialist coaches but is usually 9.15-12.30pm.

Where: TBC - Charlton College tennis courts/synthetic turf area, and Charlton Hockey Field.

Who: All players, team managers, coaches and parent helpers.

Why:

• Fit out teams with uniforms.
• Get to know who is in your team, who is your team manager, parent helper & coach.
• Do some training with your team.
• Sort out any problems and answer any questions about the weekend.

Each team will have 14 players. In the case where there are more applicants than places a trial will occur on the training day. In the event a player is not selected to play for NCHA their registration fee will be refunded.

For more details about JCC please contact Candece Jay on Mobile 0459 469 699 or email nchajcc@gmail.com