Hockey has a big following among New Zealand schoolkids. Primary-aged players start with Small Sticks and miniball, intermediate and secondary school teams play on Saturday mornings and the odd weeknight on the local turf, and the winter season wraps up in late August with tournament week and prizegiving. A team manager is usually the one asked to put together a slideshow to play before the trophies come out.
Turf hockey is one of the trickier sports to capture from the fence. Players crouch, sticks cut across faces, the ball is tiny, and the goalkeeper under a helmet and pads is a mystery figure in most photos. That makes fairness a real problem: the striker who scores every week ends up in thirty photos, the left back in three. The plan below fixes that without turning you into a full-time photographer.
The turf season at a glance
Pre-season trainings in May
Get the team's link into the parents' chat as soon as the squad is named. Early trainings are relaxed, the light is still good after school, and players are happy to pose for a team photo in their new playing shirts.
Round one
Ask every family to drop a few photos in the same afternoon. Saturday-morning photos of the warm-up drills are surprisingly good, because players are moving slowly and facing the sideline.
The July school holidays
With no games for a fortnight, it is the right moment to open the coverage list and see who is behind. On most hockey teams it is the fullbacks, the halves who rarely shoot, and the keeper.
Tournament week
Many secondary and intermediate teams finish with a week-long tournament away from home. Those days produce bus trips, team dinners, billet families and the best team spirit of the year, so ask parents who travel to be the photographers for everyone.
A fortnight before prizegiving
Set the cut-off for photos a few days before the evening so there is a relaxed night to watch the first cut.
Five steps that suit hockey
Use shirt numbers if they stay fixed
Secondary school teams usually keep the same number all season, so paste them alongside first names. A number on the back of a shirt is often the only clue in a photo taken from the far side of the turf. Small Sticks groups who share bibs can skip numbers.
Agree consent with the school or club first
Hockey teams are often school teams, which means the school's photography policy applies. Check with the teacher in charge, then flag any player without consent; their photos will never be shown to others or used.
Give the keeper a dedicated photographer
Rotate one parent each Saturday whose only job is the keeper: kitting up, the warm-up shots, a save, and the moment the helmet comes off at the final whistle. Four Saturdays of that covers the whole season.
Photograph every penalty corner
Short corners are the best still moment in hockey. Five defenders line up behind the backline and the attackers wait at the top of the circle. One photo can tag half the team.
Rename the chapters after tournament week
Weekly games become chapters automatically. Rename the tournament ones by day ("Day one against Hamilton") so families can follow the story, then export.
How long should a hockey prizegiving slideshow be?
A hockey squad has 12 to 16 players. If each player appears three or four times and you add a handful of team shots, the slideshow runs three to four minutes. That is plenty for a school hall on a weeknight. When a club shows one slideshow per team, from Small Sticks upward, three minutes each is a kind limit for the families waiting for the senior trophies.
Song length plannerFit your photos to the music, song by song.The Pitch style, with stripes and bold titles, fits the turf well. Choose an upbeat instrumental, and flag any Year 13 players heading off to university so they get a short tribute at the end.
Prizegiving night, hockey edition
Things to sort before the evening
- Ask the school or club which device drives the hall projector, and test your file on it.
- Turf photos are bright and green; dim the hall lights so the colours hold up on screen.
- Put the slideshow straight before the coaches' awards, when the room is most attentive.
- Bring the team's playing shirt or flag for the group photo afterwards.
- Text the private link to the families of any players who could not make it.
Privacy and safeguarding
Faces are never scanned or recognised. Children are matched to photos by the tags their families add and the numbers on their jersey. Only first names are stored, location data is removed on the phone before upload, the season’s link is private and never appears in search engines, and anything inappropriate for a youth sports setting is hidden automatically. Any parent can report a photo, and the organiser has the final say on every photo in the video.
Questions from hockey families
Can a Small Sticks group have its own slideshow?
Yes. Small Sticks and miniball groups make lovely short slideshows. Set up a season with the children's first names and send the link to their families.
Our team plays in both a Saturday grade and a midweek competition. One slideshow?
One. It is the same group of players, so a single season covers both competitions, and each block of games becomes its own run of chapters by date.
Prizegiving has been moved. What do I change?
Just the event date and the photo cut-off for the season. Everything else carries on.
A player left halfway through to play another sport. Do they stay in?
That is your call and their family's. If they stay on the roster they get the same minimum appearances as everyone else, as long as enough photos of them exist.