SCC Hockey SCChool

By Kanan Packrisamy

With the summer almost fully upon us, The Hockey SCChool is approaching its first year of operations. The SCChool has had quietly been successful with 40 kids on its roster without any major marketing. We are going to complete Term 3 since inception and Term 4, when we return from summer break, will be definitely bigger and better. The Hockey SCChool is proud to announce that our U10 mixed teams did ever so well in their first official competitive outing. Both our teams finished in Gold and Silver positions in the Vesaki U10 4v4 Hockey Tournament. This delightful start has validated our training methods and we look to continue in this vein. Our coaching team has been growing and we now have on board on a full-time basis, Kishon Sagayaraja. The SCC Men’s 2s defender and NROC Level 1 coach handles our fledglings at the SCChool. Together with parent volunteer and accomplished player James Buchanan and SCC Ladies 1’s Goalkeeper Sally Aldridge, Kishon puts our 7 and under kids through their paces. We recently signed up Valerie Koh. The 21-year-old former Singapore International (she should become current soon) is a Community Coach (under assessment) and has been great with the kids. She works along myself (SCC and The Hockey SCChool Head Coach) with the 11 and older kids. Paramjit Singh, the experience NROC Senior Coach handles together with parent volunteers, Toby Gresham (SCC Hockey Section Member and weekday evening Padang enthusiast) and Rachel Flynn (SCC Ladies’ 1s captain) all the other kids in between the two groups. We are currently in negotiations to bring on board a top level coach with title winning pedigree in the national schools division to beef up our technical team to ensure The Hockey SCChool keeps scaling new heights. We have a camp slated for July on 18 to 22 July from 9 to 11am daily and then again from 3 to 5 August at the same time on the immaculate lawns of the Padang. Please drop me a note on join@ hockeyscchool.com for enquiries. See Calendar for dates!

By Anne-Marie Parnell

Rugby is very much back alive and kicking in Singapore despite some of our toughest months ever. The pandemic was always going to be painful for team sports – isolation just doesn’t work on a rugby pitch. But the SCC Rugby Academy is now emerging on the other side – and this is our 10th anniversary year! Thankfully enough of the year remains to celebrate. Formed in January 2012, the Academy sprung out of the desire of players from the SCC Rugby Section to pass on to their kids the love of the game. In fact, many have literally grown up at the Academy - current members like Anna Cook, Sean Shepherd, Sam Webb, Rufus Barton, Jonathan Andersen, Aran Willetts and their families joined in the Club’s first year - some of those at our first ever training session. We’ve recently said a fond farewell to Simon Etheredge and his family. Simon was one of the founders and pillars of the Academy and recently headed back to New Zealand. And who knew that ten years on after taking their kids for a kick about on day one, Academy President Richard Cook and Academy Directors Marc Lansonneur and Clare Ferguson would still be involved, as well as Sarah Finley, who never wants to use the word ‘pod’ again! There’s been massive input from many other families too and each has left their indelible mark on the Club and we hope, in return, the Academy on them. They have helped make our dream a reality – a Club offering top quality rugby, touch and girls contact rugby training – to more than 500 kids across Singapore, striving to be a leading club in Southeast Asia. It’s been a decade of sad goodbyes too as inevitably Academy families have come and gone in the ebb and flow of life - many will enjoy the sport for the rest of their lives, for some it will be their lives - like Orson James who started on day one of the Academy - he now plays Wales U18.

A mix of locals and expats, the Academy attracts kids from around 100 different schools across Singapore. One of our fastest growing sections is among our girls - with strong leadership and coaching building excellent Touch and contact Rugby teams over the last few years.