S6 hockey pupils joined an online workshop with guest speakers discussing the positives of university sport. 
 
Graham Moodie, Head of High-Performance Hockey at The University of Edinburgh spoke at the session and was joined by former pupils Alan Clark, Class of ‘99 and Megan Shand, Class of ‘15. 
 
The mix of speakers provided invaluable insight into university sport and drawing in three different contexts gave the pupils a well-rounded understanding of what to expect.
 
Presenting on how high-performance hockey works at Edinburgh University, Graham Moodie shared what the expectation is of players aspiring to play in the men’s 1st XI. Graham also gave a glimpse into what a week looks for a 1st XI player and how players balance their hockey commitments with academic studies.
 
Graham highlighted that many players have returned to speak with current university students and continue to detail that being part of a university hockey team has in turn made them more employable. 
 
Megan Shand was able to share her experiences of playing hockey at The University of Edinburghfor several teams. She left the College having captained the 2nd XI and went onto captain the university 4th and 5th teams while taking on roles as social secretary and then club captain. She spoke highly of the friendships she was able to forge through her sports network at university, the confidence she gained while living away from home and how the skills she gained organising the S5 and S6 dances at the College helped her in administrative roles at university.
 
Alan Clark rounded off the panel to share his time studying at the University of Aberdeen and playing for the men's 1st XI in both Wednesday and Saturday hockey. Through his talk, Alan emphasized how influential being part of a university sports club was in interviewing for prospective jobs and detailed his belief that spending time with different personalities through his sports network made him much more employable. 
 
The speakers spoke of the importance of playing different sports whilst at university and not worrying about trialing processes and enforcing that when trials don’t go to plan, pupils should channel resilience to improve performance.
 
Mr Harper, Head of Sport added: “This was a great opportunity to engage with our current S6 hockey players during what has been a difficult year with regards to competitive sport at the College. 
 
“Pupils have missed out on so much, but we didn’t want that to be the reason for them to drop out of sport while studying at university. Sport in that setting has so much to offer boys and girls of all abilities and we wanted to highlight that and encourage as many of them as possible to continue with it, and continue to push themselves to achieve their absolute best or use it as an avenue to make new friends and pick up skills for later in their working life. 
 
“It was a very enjoyable workshop and something we would want to continue in the future, even under normal circumstances. Thank you to all the speakers who joined us.”
 
In the coming weeks, Mr Harper plans to host similar workshops for rugby and netball.