Paul Revington
In South African hockey the role of a High Performance manager at tertiary institutions has been tried, but without success. Paul Revington, the new High Performance manager of Steinhoff Maties Hockey, wants to change that.
Revington is a former international coach of South Africa, Ireland and Malaysia. He accepted the job at Maties to get involved with South African hockey again. “When I returned from Malaysia I had spent a total of 10 years at international level with a two year role at North West University thrown in between. I wanted to get involved in SA Hockey again but at the same time having a break from international coaching and also not coaching a team (for at least a year).”
Maties Hockey’s Jenny King has been planning for while to take the hockey club of the Stellenbosch University to the next level. At last year’s Hockey World Cup in Holland she asked Revington what he would be doing on his return to South Africa without giving away her intentions. “What I wanted was a High Performance job where I could positively influence an elite group of players and coaches in SA Hockey, make a significant contribution just outside the national environment, and make a living out of the job. When Jenny dropped me a mail enquiring about my availability for the Maties HP role, I was delighted. SA Hockey needs more of these HP roles offered and filled at tertiary institutions and the bearers of these positions need to be working with one another toward the good of SA Hockey.”
According to Revs – as he is internationally known – his main challenges will be managing time and expectations. “There is not a great history of High Performance roles in South African Hockey and at South African tertiary institutions so it currently lacks the culture and systems for me to feed off coming into the job and making a ‘quick’ impact. Maties have set the standard over the past year by having Kurt Cerfontyne in a similar role in 2014 too and I am now following Kurt’s path. I also need to manage my own personal expectations, as I too want to add instant value as Maties HP manager. I need to give certain systems and structures time to make this impact and create the difference – and often this goes beyond just counting medals at the end of a season.”
Revington wants to make sure that he is not only assisting in cultivating national, but also international players at Maties. “I want to keep our elite Maties players and coaches up-to-date with European trends, technical training methods, and tactical concepts that evolve so quickly to keep teams, coaches and players on top and ahead. We can get so caught up in ‘our South African Hockey’ that we forget about the rest of the hockey world (Europe). I need to encourage players and coaches to think big and see themselves as being able to go and play/coach in the (semi) professional leagues, becoming international stars in these leagues and be one of the five or six world-class players necessary in any South African senior team. This is a mind set that all of us must continue to drive at our Maties Hockey Club. It is possible.”
According to Revington one of the reason he accepted the job as Maties Hockey, was because of the immense history this club has. “What set Maties apart from the rest is the quality of the people and leaders involved in the club over the many years of its existence. Let me name just a few: Jackie Wiese, Sherylle Calder, Kelly Fairweather, Jenny King, Nick Wides, Simon Organ and very recently Sean Surmon. The quality of the training environment and town simply speaks for itself. There is a proven culture and history of hard work and success.”