News

Interview with Graham Charlesworth

(by Ben Roberts)

Question 1

BR - What were your season expectations?

GC - In my opinion it was to stabalise at the start of the season then to re-assess at the halfway mark to look at pushing for the promotion places, however I thought that was going to be more a pipedream that reality.

Question 2

BR - What do you think was the biggest challenge of the season?

GC - Personally coming into a relegated side that had lost a lot of players and having to integrate more youth players into the set up. The biggest challenge there was to blend the mix of experienced players we retained and brought back with the youth coming up through the club.

Question 3

BR -What was your season highlight?

GC - Plymouth Marjons away definitely.

BR – Why’s that?

GC – We ended up travelling down to Plymouth with just 12 players with 4/5 of the regular 1^st team missing. We worked hard and “parked the bus” ensuring that we scraped a 1-0 victory. It was a really hard fought win right until the end.

Question 4

BR - So let’s talk about Prague and indoor.

GC - Well it was a learning curve most definitely! With new rules and a pretty inexperienced team it was always going to be difficult but thoroughly enjoyable.

On to Prague and we went with 0 expectations and the biggest thing for us was the building up of club unity. I believe although the results really didn’t go our way it definitely helped us in the scrappy victories towards the end of the season!

Question 5

BR –EuroHockey Trophy is fast approaching. What are your expectations and thoughts in the build up to it, especially following last years promotion?

GC – It’s going to be tough, and we are under no illusions that last year was a very different level of competition.

We have been working very hard with extra fitness and intense training sessions but again for a number of players it’s going to a massive learning curve for the players who have never experienced European hockey before. I would say it’s even massive for me even though I have been to Europeans before.

Question 6

BR – What have you though and enjoyed about your first full season coaching here at Whitchurch HC?

GC – I’ve found it a really friendly club with lots of people really wanting to help out. I’ve also been really pleased and impressed with the work ethic and dedication a lot of players put into their training and games and it’s a real privilege for me to be part of that.

Question 7

BR – And Finally what are your plans for the future?

GC – I’ve said it before and I will say it again it’s been a big learning curve for me and I fell like I have learnt a lot from the experience and the players and feel I have passed on some really good knowledge onto them. The aim now is to really start building towards Europe and next season and see where we go from there.

BR – Thank you to Graham for the interview and best of luck for Europe and beyond!