The Bendigo Blaze
League:
Inline Hockey
State / Area:
VIC / Regional
Funding Requested
$1233
Voting has now finished.
Recipients will be announced on 6th June 2016.
About The Bendigo Blaze
Ours is a family oriented club that has multiple teams for young children ( 11 and under) two divisions based on ability( age 12-17) adults (18+) Social Adults ( 18+ coed) and girls/women 12+. We have house league competitions based in Bendigo, Victoria. The inline club was started in November 2007 by the owner of The Zone, where the rink is still located. He was and still is passionate about inline hockey, having played on numerous Victorian and Australian teams around the world. The club has players ranging from age 6-54 and is co-ed. There continues to be several child players from foster care and 15 participants with Autism and other disabilities. Currently there are 90 members. Since its inception the club has provided local opportunities to play but also has had numerous members play for Victoria, Tasmania and Australia.
Value to the Community
Our club provides a co-ed environment for all children and adults to have fun and to participate fully in sport, which does not always happen in mainstream sporting activities. We are an inclusive club that welcomes people with disabilities. We provide opportunities for both males and females to participate in leadership roles such as refereeing, coaching and scorekeeping. Our president has been female for the last four years and she has promoted the increased number of junior and senior female participants. Many of our junior players have tried numerous sports, but have not experienced success until they have played with us.
Why the funds are needed
We have focused on uniforms and fixing up the facilities for players, paid for junior and senior players to take refereeing, coaching and scorekeeping courses, put all our finances in a digital format,, fixed up our changerooms, started to use the national Mighty Pucks Curriculum for coaching but we now need more fun and engaging training equipment so that during training sessions players are engaged and practicing rather than lining up to wait for their turn. We want 2 new hockey nets, shooting targets, weighted ball for stick handling, weighted pucks to develop wrist strength, 2 fast hand stick handling devices and a shooter tutor ( a cover for the hockey net which helps improve shooting accuracy. Some of the training items can be ordered within Australia and others have to be brought in from the US as they are not available here. The more opportunity that children and adults have to practice, ie time with puck, the better they will get and the more confidence they will gain.
Links
bendigoblaze.hockeysyte.com is the site we use for scorekeeping and email communications to our members
We do have a Bendigo Blaze Website but prefer to use the Face book page. Our page is linked with the state body VIHO ( Victorian Inline Hockey Organisation) and our posts are shared through their networks as well. We do have a twitter account but have not fully used it to our advantage.
Be sure to Like our Facebook page for news and updates.