Numbers/facts you need to know about the way hockey is run

11 players on the field
Minimum 7 for a game to start and be counted (5 for U9s)
Less than 7 is a walkover to the opposition (less than 5)
Maximum 16 players on a team (five on the bench)
Double-ups are only permitted to make a full team up to 11 players, although we can ask the opposition for permission for a goalie to double up even if more than 12
Permission is not automatic
All grades from U13A and up have to have a goalie to take the field - no goalie no game and a walkover is granted
Maximum 3 times a year for a player to double-up
5 strokes each way when we get to a penalty shoot-out (not till finals)

THE WORD IS ...TEAM OFFICIAL!

“Team” is a word of interesting origins: in Old High German zoum means “bridle” and the horse connection is seen in Old Frisian, where tam means “bridle” and Old Norse where taumr refers to a chain for yoking animals together. In Old English team means “offspring”.

“Official” means “of the office” and Office is a place, or a set of rooms, but in fact it comes from Latin officium meaning “service”. In Old French, two sources are provided opus meaning “work” or “service”, and facere “to do”. In other words a particular role has become associated with the place where that role, of service, is carried out.

“Service” means, basically an act of help or assistance and comes from the Latin servitium which means “the condition of a slave” and servus meaning “a slave”. In Old French the word was servise meaning “the work done by a slave”.

Coaches expect their teams to be yoked into the same bridle and parents hope their offspring will work together, but it is the team officials who are the real slaves.

“Manager” arrived in the sixteenth century from the Italian maneggiare “to control or train horses”, and ultimately from the Latin manus, the hand. Noticed the connection between hockey and horses?

“Coach” is a sixteenth century word, too, from the French coche, which was a vehicle, named after the Hungarian town where the horse-drawn wagon was first made Kocs. The connection with a person was made through the teacher who has role in carrying his pupils forward.

The other important hockey club slave is the canteen operator. “Canteen” goes back to wagons in two ways: it is an eighteenth century word connected with the French cantine and Italian cantina, meaning “wine cellar”, drawn from canto, “corner”. A shop on the corner is a good place to get a drink! Maybe that’s why they have both long and short corners in hockey? But there is a connection back to the Latin canthus, meaning the iron hoop that encircles the chariot wheel. Maybe the Romans dropped in for a traveler while the wheels were changed?

So parents, water them foals and fillies and strap them in harness! Be prepared to do the job when asked!

Thanks to our sponsors for the junior club:

And to our major sponsor, Essendon Football Club!