Eleven young hockey players from the Isle of Man’s junior academy centre have been selected to attend performance coaching sessions at the North West Junior Regional Performance Centre (JRPC) at Belle Vue, Manchester this summer.

Attending this summer’s JRPC program will be; under-18s Lauren Finch (Repton School and Ramsey) and Steven Lowe (Valkyrs); under-17 Alex Bell (Cronkbourne Bacchanalians); under-16s Chloe Cornish (Cronkbourne Bacchanalians), Ellen Robinson, Nick White, Matthew Grice, Nat Smith (all Ramsey); and at under-15 Chris Whiting (Cronkbourne Bacchanlians), Jack Woods (Vikings) and Juan Kermeen (Ramsey).

These players will be a part of a squad of approximately 36 players at each age level and will receive 24 hours of coaching supervised by England Hockey centrally contracted coaches.

Their first target will be to try to gain selection for the Manchester Pumas team for round robin tournaments in September against the Leeds and Durham centres.

Manx Hockey Association Chairman James Shimmin says, "This is an incredible performance by the Island’s youngsters and is an excellent reward for the effort put in by the academy players and coaches over the winter."

The MHA would like to thank WI-MANX as its corporate sponsor and Isle of Man Sport for their continued support with the program.

the MHA says it is only through their continued support of the Single System Program and help with travel costs that they are able to give the youth players within hockey the opportunity to maximise their potential.