THE Southside Sports Management is working with the government to further develop the Skip Roberts Youth Development on Orealla Avenue.
The plan according to Samuel Roberts, the owner of Southside Sports Management is to turn the venue into a full-scale hockey compound.
The Old Fort Hockey Club, with support from the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports, earlier this year, developed a miniature hockey pitch outfitted with an artificial turf.
Unused section of South Ruimveldt Gardens Recreational Park
“Old Fort Hockey Club and Southside Sports Management are working in collaboration; we are going to get the Old Fort Hockey Club registered as a friendly society. Southside will develop the 5’s to bring in profit; one will do the funding and organising. We plan to merge the two to build this out, a full-size field, and build a clubhouse, another hockey 6 aside pitch at the back, so we can actually get a hockey complex in a sense.”
Roberts says the facility in South Ruimveldt Garden has been a boost, as they have been able to host their Friday night 5’s hockey competition but in order to further grow the sport on a wider scale, they need more venues.
“The fact that we have got this and GCC has got one, it helps with understanding the technique of the game, the speed of the game and the start of dribbling, start of the control bit. It is crippling at the same time because to truly implement strategies you can’t do it here, we need to spread the game, open it out. Movement of player it is hard to do on this surface, so we do need a full size turf. I know the hockey board is working with the ministry and we are trying to make sure we can get there in the near future,” he added.
He says that recent works order by Minister Steven Jacobs has made the South Ruimveldt more comfortable for players.
“It is with the help of the ministry of sports that we got to where we are. They put the bid out for the concrete slab, we did the rest but it is a collaborative effort. The Ministry of Sports finished the rest room which helps us to facilitate our players. Boys could play hockey anywhere but if you try to push the girls’ programme, we can’t have them on the field without a restroom. It’s a plan in motion and a collaboration between Old Fort, Southside Sports Management, Government, private sector, we can get this where it can benefit not just hockey, if we get the full-size field, it’s open season for other sports while maintaining a focus on hockey.”
He says that the residents have reached out to give the greenlight to the project’s development