On the opening of our new international level pitch today, it seems appropriate to outline my intent for your club and the aspirations for the new season. The committee as been working hard over the summer to ensure that US continues to improve and to build on the success of last season. This has developed my three key points that I want all of us in USPHC to keep in the forefront of our minds as we head into the new season; [b]Transparent leadership, positive attitude and competitive spirit .

Before we can work as a club we require a committee to do the administration and captains to lead our teams. The committee works for you as the club members to develop USPHC and give the best hockey experiences for all and transparency is the key to this. To that end, all committee meetings are open to you all to attend, to listen to our discussions, understand our plans and see our decision making process. The minutes from each meeting will also be published on the website, on Facebook and emailed to those who wish to see them. This transparency is there to allow you to understand the inner workings of the club and to enable you to influence how we run our business through your captains and the club captain.

We had to begin our hockey journey at some point in our lives. Whether you were brought along by your parents at a young age, taught at school or only recently joined your first club; it is the positive attitudes of those around you who make you want to play and develop into a better hockey player. It is our attitudes to our oppositions, umpires, coaches and our own players that will shape opinions of our club by others and those who may wish to join. We are also a mixture of service, veterans and civilian players all representing the armed forces under the banner of United Services. Our oppositions will expect a well drilled and disciplined team when they arrive at our fixtures and also people who respect the authority of umpires and coaches. Regardless of the fact we may not all be in the military, we all need to maintain that positive attitude and discipline as players and representatives. This is something that we are not the best at (myself included) so I will be making a concerted effort as I expect everyone else to so we can improve.

We would not be a sports club if we did not have a competitive spirit to drive us each year. As many of you are aware, the committee has strived to find a coach to help develop us all as players and unfortunately the coach we had lined up has fallen through at the last minute. I can assure you that the committee is incredibly frustrated with this and we are doing everything we can to find a coach to develop US. In the short term we will be using club members to take sessions on Tuesday and Thursday and the content will be influenced by the captains of each team following the weekend matches to keep the sessions as relevant as possible. Can I ask we give as much support to these player/coaches who are giving up their own time to create a training plan and deliver it to us. As soon as there is a coaching solution I will make sure it is highlighted to you and if you know any coaches then let any member of the committee know ASAP. Improvement on last season remains our main aim for each team and this comes both at training, playing and off pitch activities. There are already a few socials in the calendar and Christmas is in the process of being organised. Whether it is the pint after the match or a main gathering of the club, by bonding together off the pitch we will develop our understanding of each other on match days and give us the edge on our oppositions.

This will lead us all towards improving on our performances from last season and create a more effective United Services for all to enjoy. If you wish to discuss any of the above or improvements for the club please just contact me. The committee and I will lead by example for this season which I hope is another successful year for USPHC.

Tristan