Once again, as in previous years, we're delighted to see so many of our Tahuna hockey players give up their time to umpire this season.

Last Thursday we were very lucky to have Jolene Casey from Otago Hockey come in to Tahuna to run a session for our budding hockey umpires. Jolene worked with a group of seven Tahuna students to help prepare them for umpiring a mix of Year 3/4, Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 games.

Well done to all of this group for going out of their comfort zones and making this season-long commitment.

Here are some of the responses from our prospective umpires after the session with Jolene:

Liam McRodden: “I liked learning all the hand signals - I am much more confident to start reffing now than I was before.”

Leila Wall: “This will be my second year of umpiring - it was great to review the different signals the umpires give.”

Ashton Spears: “I liked learning to referee a 3 v. 3 game.”

Peta Richardson: “I am excited to start reffing and now I feel a lot more confident.”

Eli Griffiths: “I like that Jolene taught us the basics and what to do if players aren’t listening to the ref.”

Miklós Burt: “I think it was really important and helpful for me to know the rules of the game.”

Madeline Hage-Sleiman: ”It was a great refresher for me ready for this season.”