Feature Articles

5 Mins with Fabian Gregory: Unpacking U-21 Hockey

While most
of you are still enjoying a festive break, National under-21 women’s hockey
coach, Fabian Gregory, is busy preparing his team for a
challenging two-test series against the Dutch U-21s, which takes place on the 8^th
and 10^th of January at Stellenbosch and Hartleyvale respectively.

Fabian, who
comes from a sporty family – his mother played netball and his father played
provincial rugby – was appointed coach of the U-21s in March, last year. He is
passionate about coaching and is also the assistant coach of the SPAR National
women’s hockey team, where he works alongside senior coach, Jenny King.

Two days
after the SA U-21 v Dutch U-21 series, Fabian will work alongside King as the
SPAR SA team faces Ireland
in a four-test series from January 12-19^th, also being hosted at
Hartleyvale and Stellenbosch.

Fabian, who
is also a big Manchester United and the Blue Bulls fan, received national
colours in cricket and hockey.

He spoke to
gsport about the state of U-21 women’s hockey, the importance of a strong U-21
hockey structure, and his aspirations as a hockey coach.

Fabian, what is your sports background?

Mother
played netball and dad played provincial rugby. I played provincial rugby,
soccer, hockey, athletics, cricket, baseball. I got national colours in cricket
and hockey. I decided at an early age that I wanted to coach. I am a sports
fanatic and I pride myself on sports knowledge. I am passionate about
Manchester United and the Blue Bulls.

What do you enjoy most about your role as coach?

Firstly, it
is important that I am able to transfer knowledge over to players. Secondly,
interacting with players, especially seeing that they are females, and the need
to be treated totally different to males. I also learnt a lot about myself with
regards to the different situations that present itself every day.

What is your coaching philosophy?

My coaching
philosophy is simple, that everything I do, I must be adding value and doing it
to the best of my ability or rather give somebody else a chance to do it. It is
also important that I use every experience and situation to learn from, to grow
as an individual and as a coach. I believe in a strong and hard work ethic as
my mum also says, "Hard work never killed anybody".

What has been your biggest highlight being involved
with women’s hockey?

My biggest
highlight is firstly qualifying and attending the World Cup and being involved
with a number of very talented and enthusiastic players and being part of a
management team that is very passionate and driven to see the players achieve,
and South African Hockey to flourish.

How important is the under-21 level in building a
strong senior national women’s team?

It is
extremely important that the U21 hockey is of a high standard as the next step
is the Senior National team. I do believe that more emphasis should also be
placed at the junior groups such as the U14, U16 and U18.

How do you feel about the strength of hockey at
under-21 level?

The standard
of hockey at under-21 level has been helped by there being a number of under-21
players who have an outstanding work ethic and want to achieve, and have made
the national team. Sadly there are too few of them around. Yes, this has helped
to up the level but not enough players put in the extra work tactically. I
believe there is a huge lack of knowledge especially with regard to presses.

You’re also assisting Jenny King with the
senior women’s team. how are you enjoying
it?

The head
coach will give specific themes of what is going to be done during a specific
session and I would be asked to coach a specific theme. Before test matches we
would also plan tactically how we are going to play the match and during test
matches I would sit on the side of the field and pass instructions to the
players as well as pass info onto Jenny.

After
matches we would sit as a group and analyze the match we played. I am also responsible
for coaching the goalkeepers. I am also responsible for the stick and warm up
before a test match. It is a fantastic environment to be in; it is very
challenging, yet thoroughly enjoyable. It is difficult to describe the feeling
before a test match as well as singing the national anthem.

What more could be done to further improve the state
of women’s hockey in South
Africa?

Firstly, the
National team has been very fortunate to have a wonderful sponsor in Spar but
sponsorship for junior teams are hardly any IF at all. The South African Hockey
Association has embarked on appointing a few hockey managers and this will
hopefully improve the standard.

Too many
players are lost to hockey after finishing school and they are needed to
increase the pool of players. Sadly, club hockey needs to be revived as the
standard has dropped in the last couple of years. I do believe that there is a
need for regional academies where players are being coached throughout the year
by top coaches.

How did you rate your team’s performance in the
recent series against Australia?

I knew that
we were not going to beat them but it was important to set ourselves goals that
we would like to achieve in each test match. We have a very young and
inexperienced team. We were tactically inexperienced and example of goals we
tried to achieve during matches was our positioning in presses and working the
ball out of our defensive area when being pressed by the opposition.

We have a
lot of hard work ahead of us in the next 18 months but I am reasonably pleased
with the progress we made in the last series and by the character and ability
shown by a number of players.

How would you rate your team’s chances against the Dutch under-21s?

It is going
to be the toughest test that these players would experience up till now, but I
do believe that it is an opportunity for players to learn, to grow and also
show that they are capable of playing at the highest level. I reckon that the
Dutch are the best under-21 team in the world at the moment and recently also
beat our Senior National team. We will once again set ourselves small goals
that we would like to achieve in each of the matches and be very competitive.

How many players harbour hopes of cracking into the
senior national team for the Olympics?

I could
probably tell you all of them, but quite a few lack characteristics to get to
the top such as good training ethic and following a good nutrition and training
program.

What goals have the national under-21 team set for
itself in 2008?

For 2008, a
definite improvement in our fitness level, a good showing at the ladies
inter-provincial tournament and to qualify for the Junior World Cup.

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