As South Africa men and women’s junior teams both qualified for the Hockey Junior World Cup, the appetite for hockey in the sport-mad country is greater than ever. In fact, the sport is now gaining traction in areas and among communities who have little historical involvement in hockey.
Nowhere is the enthusiasm for developing the sport more on show than in the Langa district of Cape Town, where an innovative campaign has been fulfilling a dual role – it has got many more people playing, watching and talking about hockey, but it has also got more people exercising and thinking about their health and lifestyle.
Langa is the largest suburb of Cape Town and the oldest of the townships that were created in the last century as places for black communities to live. As such, hockey was always a poor relative to the more popular sports of football and cricket, but an initiative started by the Langa Hockey Club is fast pushing our sport into the limelight.
The team of executives running the Langa Hockey Club have launched an initiative dubbed #2000 Fans of Langa, which is an open invitation to the community to support the club’s home games. A concerted publicity campaign is being run to attract people to watch hockey being played at all levels.
“This is an ongoing campaign throughout the hockey season because we want people to support the club, from our junior matches to senior teams. We want people to come out and watch us in the field of play.” explains the team’s publicist Phumzile Malotana.
But even more successful at raising the profile of hockey has been the club’s Friday 5k hockey runs. Publicised through a busy Facebook page, the weekly run is gaining vast support in the community. People of all ages and abilities are encouraged to turn up, join in and, adding a neat quirky twist, wear a pair of red socks to show their support for the hockey club.
“This is attracting people who would never normally take an interest in hockey,” says Malotana. “It is very exciting and people who have never run before are starting to follow us and the feedback we get is amazing. Others have taken to exercising daily because of this.”
Club player Owethu Ebenezer Maholwana says the runs are making a difference in the community.
“The pace is high but a lot of people are starting to enjoy it. They can’t wait to don their red socks on Fridays to be part of the hockey run.”
A side effect of the increased interest in the Langa Hockey Club has been an improvement in results. Malotana says this is partly due to the crowds supporting the teams. “Filling up the stadium with fans has given our players the spirit to fight until the end of the match. In the opening match of the season, we went 1-0 down, but the team bounced back to take the game 3-1.”
Langa Hockey Club was founded back in 1987 by the late South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer. He wanted his cricketers to keep active during the cricket off-season. Since then, the club has grown and is currently the only club in any South African township to have an astro-turf.
Malotana’s vision is to make hockey in the township a vibrant and community-based sport, but a venue that opponents will fear coming to because of the strength of local support. “We want to turn Langa Stadium into our hockey fortress. Visiting teams must fear us but at the same time we want to make the community part of the hockey vibe and entertainment.”
The aim of the Langa Hockey Club is to attract 2,000 fans to each and every match and, in raising the profile of the game, attract more players at each level. Such projects are in line with the FIH's 10 year strategy – the Hockey Revolution – which aims to bring the game to millions of new fans.
For more information about this project, check them out on Twitter or Facebook.
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