2025 Archives - Underwater Hockey Australia

Dear Underwater Hockey Australia Commission (UHA) Members:
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday February 2nd via an online meeting at 4pm
AEST.
The link will be provided to State Representatives and anyone wishing to Nominate for a position on
the committee.
The link below is to the UHA AGM information on our website, this will be updated as information
becomes available including the agenda.
Underwater Hockey Australia Annual General Meeting

The current structure of the committee as per the current constitution is as follows:
Executive Director: Vacant
Secretary: Vacant
Treasurer: Nathan Whelan
Management Committee Member: Amar Sarmiento currently acting as coaching director
Management Committee Member: Craig McKenzie currently acting as records officer
Management Committee Member: Ben Stepkovich – Currently acting as TD
Management Committee Member: Sean Hartley – Currently acting as Development Director

We are currently seeking nominations for the role of Executive Director, Secretary, and 2
management committee positions currently held by Ben and Sean who are up for re-election.

Other associated members of the committee by appointment are:
Helen Canavan – Referee director
Kate Howard – MPIO Officer
Natasha Marquez- Communications Officer

This AGM we are seeking nominations for the following positions:

• Executive Director
• Secretary
• Management Committee Member 1
• Management Committee Member 2

It is expected that a Management Committee Member would take on a specific role:
For example:
Referee Director
Tournament Director
Director of Development:
All position descriptions are available here.
Please note that this is just to create the management committee of UHA and once this is done
additional positions can be appointed by the committee to increase the functionality of the
organisation.

Currently these positions include but are not limited to:

MPIO Officer
Referee Director
Communications Officer

We really want to increase the capacity of the UHA Committee so if you have a strength or passion
for a particular part of the sport please apply to be on the committee.
All applicants should use this application form.

If you have any questions in regards to the AGM then please email me directly using my details
below or call to discuss any matters.

Yours in Underwater Hockey,

Nathan Whelan
Treasurer
Underwater Hockey Australia
Australian Underwater Federation
treasurer@underwaterhockeyaustralia.org.au
Ph: 0409147420

Underwater Hockey Australia is very excited to announce that the 2025 Australian Underwater Hockey National Championships will be held in Ballarat, Victoria, in January next year.

The super organised LOC from VIC are doing a fantastic job of locking in everything on the ground in Victoria, and an initial info pack will be out soon with more information but we can share with you the following information for now.

Venue: Ballarat Aquatic & Lifestyle Centre, Gillies St N, Lake Gardens VIC 3350

Dates: 12-19th January, 2025

Format: (see below for updates about the format of nationals going forward)

2025 UWH Nationals	Day 0	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7
12-19th January	Sun 12th	Mon 13th	Tues 14th	Weds 15th	Thurs 16th	Fri 17th	Sat 18th	Sun 19th
Divisions		U15 open
		U19 open
		U19 women
					Elite women
					Elite open
					Masters
Format	Set up/ optional team training/ JNR opening ceremony	JNR Round robin	JNR Round robin	Junior round robin + semi’s	Crossover day- JNR Finals, SNR round robin, JNR Prizegiving / junior preso	SNR round robin	SNR round robin	SNR semis + finals / SNR preso
~games per day		2-3	2-3	2-3	JNRS 1 / SNRS 2	2-3	2-3	2

Divisions:

To clarify, junior divisions have always been based on the age of the athlete at 12:01am on 1st January each year (not the age at the competition).
- So for 2025, players born 2010 onwards can play U15s, players born 2006 onwards can play U19s.
U19s will be staying as U19s for the foreseeable future (not moving to U18s as previously suggested)
Be prepared that UHA is likely to ratify that the minimum age to compete at nationals is 11 (at the date of the comp), with 10 year olds possibly to be granted exemptions to compete
Players competing in the U19W divisions are welcome to compete in the U19 open or U15 open divisions as well –> and flexibility will be given to composite state teams to allow this division to resume at nationals (previously contested in 2017 and 2019)
Masters players have to be 35 by the date of the competition

Team registration deadlines:

Gone are the days of teams getting organised last minute for nationals and paying fees late. UHA and the VIC LOC are doing our best to get nationals organised earlier going forward, which gives more time for states to get organised earlier too.

This will be confirmed in the initial info pack but states should be prepared to have to submit team entries (# of teams) by end of September, with team lists and player fees due by mid Nov (2 months prior).

Changes to nationals going forward:

At the risk of this announcement sounding like I’m putting the cart before the horse, I can assure you there has been a lot of work being put behind the scenes by the UHA Tournament Working Group (TWG) to review the survey results and discuss changes to nationals going forward. The summary of survey results, minutes of our two recent TWG meetings and the UHA Tournament Strategic Plan will be released soon, which will explain the rationale behind continuing down this track.

After reviewing the preliminary findings of the TWG, the UHA State representatives recently voted by majority for UHA to trial to the above longer split format (3.5 days per division) for the next 2-3 years.

I am aware there has been a lot of support for a veterans division to be added into nationals. We have chosen to include the U19W division as a priority in the short term, and the Tournament Strategic Plan will outline the plan of how extra divisions will be catered for/added to tournaments in future.

However, UHA is pleased to announce that uwh has been added to the Great Barrier Reef Masters Games for 2025 (30-31 May 2025, Cairns), hosted by Cairns UWH. More details are still to be finalised but this has the potential to be an alternative for veterans aged players in the short term 🙂

https://gbrmg.com.au/sports/underwater-hockey

Cheers, Ben

Annual General Meeting

Save the date – 2025 Australian Underwater Hockey National Championships, 12-19th January, Ballarat