SportGibraltar

Gibraltar's other hockey, looking to join Andalucian league

The Gibraltar Extreme Sports Association or to use its less formal name, the Skate Park, is nestled amongst the derelict buildings of Coaling Island. It was officially opened on4th October 2001 by the Sport Minister Ernest Britto, since then it has had a somewhat see-saw membership.

Eric Young the present keeper of the keys, has been trying to raise it’s fortunes for the past few months although because of the heat it was closed during July and August. It opened again early in September and alongside Eric there is a revamped committee that is keen to promote the benefits and fun to be had either skating on the ramps or playing skate hockey.

The association is waiting to register in the Andalucian hockey league which starts soon and includes teams from Seville, Jerez and Algeciras amongst others. At the moment they have two teams with five young people per team and three on the side as rolling substitutes but they would like more. They took the girls to UK recently and a reunion for Eric Young with the British Flyers, a team he used to coach. The girls mixed in with the Flyers and played games against Manchester and Sheffield as a touring side to further relations with a view to training and meetitings in order to hopefully form an all girl team to enter UK tournaments sometime in the future.

The Gibraltar Extreme Sports Association is open and trains on Mondays and Wednesdays for the 7 -13 year olds between 5 and 7.30pm. For the 14 to adult teams it is Tuesdays from 6-7.30pm. If you have thought about hockey on skates and think you’re tough enough then don’t talk about it, ring Eric Young on 70710.

Read the rest of the article, taken from the Gibraltar Magazine