June 2022

Dear BC Field Hockey Community,

The Vancouver Hawks have informed us of some drastic changes that are happening regarding facilities planning through the Vancouver Parks Board, which would affect our field sport, along with many others. Please see below the message from their Executive Director, Alex Bale:

"I am writing today to ask you to help lobby the Vancouver Parks Board. On Monday June 27th there is a special meeting to debate the upcoming 4-year Capital Plan. This plan currently proposes to slash funding for Artificial Turfs and Ball Diamonds from $11.6m to only $3.8m, as well as leaving unspent $9.4m from the previous Capital Plan. You can find more details here.

This will severely impact not only field hockey, but all field sports in Vancouver. Along with soccer, ultimate, baseball and many other field sports, we are asking you, the users of these facilities, to advocate for a fairer distribution of funds to acknowledge the importance of community sport in our society. Without participation from the users this will go through, and we will not have any new fields and current fields will not get maintained and/or resurfaced. This is not just a field hockey issue; it is for all sports field users.

How to help

I have drafted a template letter to send to the Vancouver Parks Board Commissioners. Feel free to use this (please sign and add date and name), use part of it, or write your own.  

Please send your letters to the commissioners at pbcommissioners@vancouver.ca before the meeting on Monday June 27th. 

Additionally you could register to speak at the Parks Board meeting scheduled to approve the capital plan (June 27) https://vancouver.ca/your-government/speak-at-a-meeting.aspx

We encourage all our members to take this democratic action ASAP to help secure field hockey and other sport facilities for our community."

You may download the letter template here.

Divisional Winners - Women's Masters Division

1st Furious Tango

2nd Masters of Disaster

3rd Burnaby Lakers

Divisional Winners - Mixed Social Division

1st Wizards of Booze

2nd Spoon Squad

3rd Kozmopolitan

Divisional Winners - Women’s Social Division

1st Chilliwack

2nd Tri-City Eagles

3rd Rollie Pollie Ollies

Spirit of Judy Broom Award

Spoon Squad

In 1979, Judy became the first full-time paid executive director of the BCWFHF working alongside Jenny John. The strength of Field Hockey BC today, especially on the women’s side, can be directly traced back to the groundwork laid by Judy from 1979-2005. During that time she helped organize countless tournaments at all levels of play including the 1979 International Women’s Field Hockey Championship (IFWHA) held at UBC and the Vancouver International Tournament, which she helped found in 1995-96, a trophy for which is still awarded today known as “The Spirit of Judy Broom Award.”

Later in her career, Judy helped merge the separate men’s and women’s BC and Canadian governing bodies into one joint organization at both the provincial and national level, today Field Hockey BC and Field Hockey Canada respectively.

Read more about Judy's legacy here.

July 4-7 or July 11-14

Time: 8:30am-4:30pm each day

Location: Hamber Field, Vancouver

U8-U16 Boys & Girls

all skill levels welcome

Price: $370 for the week (Carpool group will be set up from the North Shore) - fees include T-Shirt. Day option available.

For more information and to register, go to www.seatoskyfhc.com