As the women’s Argentina Hockey World League Final nears its conclusion, it is perhaps time to reflect on how this event has had such an influence on developing hockey around the world.

In the first edition of the two-year long Hockey World League series, which ran from 2012-2013, 54 men’s and 45 women’s teams took part in Round One. Season 2 of the Hockey World League, reaching its culmination in Rosario, saw 56 men’s teams and 51 women’s teams start their Hockey World League journey.

The result of this four stage competition is a whole new raft of nations introducing the game at international level. From Papua New Guinea to Azerbaijan, Dominican Republic to Sri Lanka, nations are entering national teams and hockey, as a result, is growing at all levels of the game.

Here we take a look at another newly-emerging nation – Cote D’Ivoire – and see what has been happening to promote hockey in this West African country.

Martial Kouadio is president of the Cote D’Ivoire Hockey Association and he is a man who believes in a hands-on approach. Currently he is running coaching sessions for more than 110 young players, with just 30 sticks, some coaching manuals and a whole heap of enthusiasm.

“Myself and Vanessa Guenanon took our level one coaching certificate in May this year,” says Kouadio. “It was organised through the International Hockey Federation’s Targeted Assistance Programme (TAP), which is being run from Ghana for West African hockey-playing nations.”

Kouadio and Guenanon now run sessions at sites all over the country and there is huge interest but, as the coach explains, a lack of equipment means they have to limit numbers. Guenanon is the only female coach in the country and, while there are several adult women who would like to come to the coaching sessions too, a lack of time and resources means this group cannot be catered for at present. The current target group is the five to 17-year-olds.

The regular hockey training sessions are run two or three times a week, with an event once a month held in places that do not yet have hockey coaching centres. Kouadio explains that there is no funding available for the sessions, so he pays for transport, drinks and any equipment that has not been donated. He also pays for the transport when the hockey coaching roadshow travels to outlying towns.

When asked what the long term aims of the project were he said: “First of all, I would like to build up to a point where we have some good youth teams. Get some good equipment for them to use and a real hockey pitch where we can do our training and play regional matches. Eventually, I would like there to be a national team.”

While Kouadio is financing the project himself, he says he has received invaluable help from hockey friends based in Europe. He says he has coaching manuals and gets a lot of support through social media. 

He also gets advice and support from Marc-Olivier Thirion, the African Federation Project Manager and via the FIH TAP project.

“The African Hockey Federation is trying to help us get 50 sticks through the TAP project and Ghana Hockey Association. At present, we only have 30 sticks for all these kids and no goalkeeper equipment. This means, we work most of the time on rotation, moving from one training place to another so that everyone can train.

“I love coaching these kids because to make the game get bigger here we need to show it to the kids and train them. That is why I do this. It is about hockey values: unity, team spirit, respect and the big family we are, the happiness on the kids face when we are playing. All that gives me more and more strength to continue even with the difficulties we face.”

Kouadio is one of a number of passionate hockey players who is desperate to promote the sport in his country. Often working on scrubland or sand, with no equipment such as shin pads or even shoes, and with huge group sizes, these coaches are real heroes when it comes to promoting our sport.

Another important step for the nation came in November when, during the last International Hockey Federation (FIH) Executive Board meetings, Cote D’Ivoire (The Association Ivoirienne de Hockey) was granted provisional membership of FIH. They will now work towards gaining full membership at the FIH Congress to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 12 November 2016.