Perhaps not everyone knows that the second most representative team sport in the Olympic events, after football, is field hockey (or just Hockey, as it is known in its main countries such as Australia and India).
Field hockey, a sport with some similarities to football (soccer), is generally played on rectangular fields of synthetic or natural grass. Despite being an outdoor sport, to avoid the adverse winter weather conditions, the INDOOR variant was introduced, with the difference of having teams of 6 and not 11 players.
The outdoor game includes two formations of 11 players with curved sticks of wood or composite materials. The teams face each other with the aim of sending a small ball (about the size of a baseball) into the opponent's goal, defended by a goalkeeper.
The origins of this sport are ancient. However, it is impossible to establish who the first peoples were to practice this sport. Traces of games with a stick were found with the Persians (who would have adapted an old Japanese discipline) and the Greeks, civilizations who considered it (and is still seen as such) a "noble sport", in which the moral and behavioral qualities were synonymous with kindness and nobility of mind.
It is thanks to the British Empire that this discipline was regulated and codified, just as it was for football and rugby. Between 1865 and 1878, field hockey began to spread first in the British colonies, then in the Netherlands and Germany. Nations unchallenged for years were India and Pakistan. After the change of equipment, new sticks and lighter balls, the Australian national team has emerged, still holder of the world title.
Although field hockey was introduced in Italy just before the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the sport is not particularly widespread in Italy, except in Sardinia, Piedmont and Liguria. Since its inception, a Federation has been active, becoming independent in 1978 and known since 1984 under the name FIH - Italian Hockey Federation.
Field hockey at San Vito Romano
Hockey was introduced to San Vito Romano in 1967. At the time, the small village of Monti Prenestini, was a popular tourist resort. It was thanks to two "vacationers" that Massimo Testa, a young Sanvitese, decided to embark on an unusual adventure. The CHL - Club Hockey Libero San Vito was born.
The approach to this "new" sport was not the simplest. We had to wait until 1982 to see the Sanvitese team achieve its first success in the league.
The San Vito Hockey Club has had a history from the top (promotion in 1982 to the then series "B") to the bottom (negative events have led the company to the edge of dissolution), but it has always been supported by enthusiasm and from the passion for a sport that is certainly not considered to be minor.
After an important corporate reorganization, since 2006 the club has been able ‘to get up and roll up its sleeves’. In 2008, the historic promotion to A2, was lost in 2010 and regained two years later with an exceptional second place.
The flagship of the company are certainly the youth teams, men and women, who have reached the final stages of their respective championships and won 3 Scudetti (championships). In this new climate, children of all ages grow together and aware of the importance that everyone has in a team game.
Hockey is confirmed as a sport that educates based on commitment and sacrifice without denying fun.
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