Rego days
Joey's Soccer Club will be holding registration days on February 7, 6-8pm, February 14, 6-8pm, February 23, 9am-noon, and March 7, noon-3pm.
You need to register online before attending at Parker Street Oval, Kingswood.
During registering online please read and tick all the terms and conditions.
Details: st_josephs_club@hotmail.com, 0426 210 912 or www.myfootballclub.com.au
Development
program
In collaboration with Hockey NSW, the Hockey Academy will be launching a new athlete development program for hockey in 2013.
The academy is now accepting nominations from eligible, talented young male and female hockey players wishing to gain a scholarship position within the academy.
The program, to start in February, will see 17 male and 17 female athletes aged 14-16 undergo technical, educational and personal development with high-quality coaching staff, venues and professional providers.
Ryan Knowles has been appointed head coach for the program.
Knowles has played for Penrith Panthers hockey for 27 years, in A-grade for 10 years as player/coach and has played at seven national titles for NSW.
Knowles has also had coaching success with seven state championship titles for local representative teams.
Knowles is excited to be involved in bringing this new academy program to fruition.
"It is a massive opportunity for young hockey players and it's a great investment in their future," he said. "It will be great to develop talent and show other academies that western Sydney is full of talented athletes."
The squad coaches have also been announced and we are pleased to have Kieran Knowles and Mel Kristaly on board.
Both Kieran and Mel have extensive playing and coaching experience with nine state championship wins as coaches between them.
Details: website www.wsas.com.au or Rebecca Arraj on 4725 6466.
Harness
meetings
Club Paceway at Penrith is staging harness racing meetings on February 7, February 14, 21 and 28.
Thursday night has been the traditional harness racing night for as long as anyone can remember.
In fact, harness racing began at Penrith Paceway on April 16, 1964. Next year, the club will celebrate 50 years of harness racing in Penrith. Details: clubpaceway.com.au.
National
champions
Young sportswoman Ashley Day and her fellow cricketers on the under-15 NSW girls' team have broken a five-year losing streak to become national champions.
The team, coached by veteran player Lisa Sthalekar, won the competition after beating Victoria in the grand final earlier this month.
Claremont Meadows resident Ashley was surprised by the team's victory. "I wasn't really expecting it considering it was my first year but I was really excited," she said.
"When we won the actual final and all the girls were coming around and giving us hugs it was just unbelievable."
Penrith players dominated the team, with Ashley being joined by four fellow locals, including Mikayla Hinkley who was named Player of the Tournament and Amy Edgar who was the competition's highest run scorer. The secret to the girls' success was the close friendships they formed while training together, Ashley said.
"During the tournament we all stayed together without our parents so that's how we came together as a team.
"We just bonded really well; we were a proper team, we weren't one of those with individual star players."