The Hockey Family…

The internet era has changed the world and it also has changed how information is produced, distributed and shared around internet. There are many social media groups that dedicate their efforts towards promoting and sharing trending stories, pictures and videos about hockey. The Hockey Family, is one of the main ones out there. With over 34.000 Tweets about the most interesting articles and links about hockey, they help with the promotion of hockey on social networks.

Taff, is the man behind this project, here is what makes THF tick:

1. What is The Hockey Family?

To understand what ‘The Hockey Family’ is about you must first understand how it originated. So here’s a little insight about how the Hockey Family was created, although in essence it already existed.

I was volunteering at a hockey event in England, which I do on a regularly basis and a few of the usual hockey volunteers (friends) were talking about hockey. We discussed how people who volunteer, play, coach, support and even officiate have become like extended family to us all because of the close interaction that each of us has when events take place. We also considered and realised there was a 3 degrees of separation principle associated within our sport and that somehow everyone knows everyone else in some way shape or form either directly or indirectly. So from that day the concept of ‘The Hockey Family’ was born. I created Twitter and Facebook accounts and even a web domain was bought eventually.

The idea behind it is simple really, it’s to connect the hockey people around the world through one channel, firstly by providing information about hockey events happening around the world and supporting it where we can and secondly boosting the profile of hockey through the various social media outlets that we are on which are quite a few. We now have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even a Vine account, to name just a few. My passion and aim is to make The Hockey Family a name recognised throughout the world as being a brand that brings the hockey people around the world together. So simply put The Hockey Family is about the hockey people around the world and bringing them together.

2. How long ago did it start?

I suppose it was started way back in 2010 when I started providing the local community information about hockey events taking place in the area and even coaching camps and getting people to play hockey for the local club via my personal Twitter account. I never thought to create a separate social media accounts until about 2012 as The Hockey Family and our first Tweet was sent I think in July 2012 before the London Olympics and it’s been growing ever since.

3. What type of satisfaction does it report to you on a personal level?

I am very passionate about hockey and promote it wherever and whenever I can. I get immense satisfaction from posting messages on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets knowing that I am helping grow the sport that I love so much. I have been coaching and playing hockey for over 25 years without any return or financial reward. I would love it if people who are as passionate about hockey as I am would help by becoming volunteer journalists and report on events on behalf of The Hockey Family especially if journalism was a passion of theirs or something they were working towards.

4. What future do you see for THF?

Oh this is tough one. Maybe I should put these as bullet points as there are quite a few that The Hockey Family could do in the future and here they are:

I would like:

• To see The Hockey Family become a brand that people recognise throughout the world that brings hockey people together and gives a good all round service where we can.
• To create merchandise for people to support The Hockey Family and a percentage of the profits to go back to grass roots hockey in terms of Sponsorship and Grants
• To start providing hockey camps for enthusiastic young hockey players and help them develop their hockey career.
• To one day provide sponsorship to hockey people to help them in their hockey careers. This is one of my long term plans.
• To one day provide financial support for clubs that might need it through sponsorship and grants, although I know NGBs already provide grants to clubs at the moment but this would something additional that could be offered. This is another one of my long term plans.
• The Hockey Family to be about the people that coach, play, support and officiate on a day to day basis and help them where ever I can through THF

All of the above is going to take a long time to happen but hopefully one day the dream will come true.

We have already started providing THF hoodies and other apparel for purchase but haven’t really promoted it that much hopefully they will become popular and we can start giving back to The Hockey Family by sponsoring people in the near future.

If you are passionate about hockey please do follow us on Twitter @TheHockeyFamily and let us know how we are doing and what more we can do for our Hockey Family around the world.

We also appreciate A Hockey World taking time to do this interview and really appreciate their time and efforts so far and wish them the very best for the future.