Sutherland Hockey Club’s annual school summer competition has come to a close for another year – marking the first time the competition has run without founder Kevin Connelly.
Connelly died earlier this year and was a giant of the club, setting up the popular school-aged hockey tournament about 30 years ago.
A group from the club took over the running of the competition this year to carry on his legacy.
The eight-week competition finished last week with 62 teams taking part this season from schools across the Sutherland Shire and a few from St George.
Teams were split into four age groups (infants, junior primary, senior primary and high school) then graded into divisions.
The A grade winners in each age group included Gymea Bay Public School in the infants, Gymea Bay Public School in junior primary, Illawong Public School in senior primary, and Kirrawee High School in the high school division.
Competition co-organiser Peter Krepp said it was good to carry on the legacy Connelly had started with the junior tournament, and they hoped to grow the numbers again next year.
“The kids are rapt in it and love it win or lose, they come along to play and have a bit of sport,” he said. “It was a learning curve for us in so far as doing all the work that Kevin used to do.”
He said at its height, the tournament boasted about 90 teams.
“We are trying to get it back to where it was, and Tradies Gymea are fully behind us supporting it.”
