We all know the dire effect coronavirus has had on the world this year, but the sporting world has been especially hit.
From Mid-March when the United Kingdom was put into a national lockdown there was no competitive sport until June 1st when Horse racing and snooker were the first sports to make the much-awaited return.
But for those who are student-athletes in UEL competitive sports are still yet to return and there is currently no date set by BUCS for action to begin.
Teams within UEL have been unable to train regularly, freshers fair was online and there has been no games at all. All clubs have suffered greatly because of coronavirus.
Harder Recruitment Drive
Since coronavirus hit, UEL Hockey has been affected like all the other UEL sports but for smaller teams such as hockey, building a team is vital to being able to compete. With many players from last year having graduated and left UEL, they were counting on being successful in recruiting before the season started.
Ellen Cable, UEL Women’s Hockey captain spoke about the struggles: “It was so much harder to recruit players as there wasn’t a physical freshers fair just an online one. We usually do really well at freshers fair but this year we only managed to recruit a few players through personal connections and social media.”
The club have been trying their best to keep the team aspect alive whilst being unable to train together. Irfan Khan UEL Hockey’s chairperson added: “Seeing as we cannot even train as a team, we have been working on player development in knowledge and technical aspects via zoom call as well as having some great quiz nights for fun.”
Promising Signs
UEL hockey had just three training sessions this year in October before everything was canceled again, because of the second national lockdown.
In the three training sessions which took place, a lot of progress was made by the team. Cable spoke about their newly appointed coach, Steven Ashton: “We have a new coach who has really helped us improve significantly within the short space of time we were allowed to train.”
It has now been confirmed by UEL that they will return to training in early January, coronavirus permitting of course.
Finally Good News?
With the return to training now not too far out of sight the excitement is building for the team. The team has been itching to get back to Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre and begin preparation for the season, which will hopefully go ahead in 2021.
Cable stated “I miss training with the team, it was one thing I looked forward to each week as it is a nice break from university work. I and all the team cannot wait to get back to it.”
Khan agreed with his teammate: “I’m really just looking forward to being able to get back on the pitch and I’m excited to return to training with my team.”
The plan for UEL hockey this year has not changed from the norm to have fun playing the game. But competitively both teams are hoping to win some games when the BUCS season eventually begins.
Despite a dull end to 2020 for UEL Hockey the future is looking bright.
