At Western Wildcats we pride ourselves on the strong links we have forged with our local community. A huge proportion of our members have roots in Bearsden, Milngavie and the west of Glasgow. We believe that the hard work we do in the local area is behind both this and the reason for the large and growing numbers we have participating in hockey at Auchenhowie.
Euan Miller, our Head of Youth Development, spends a great deal of time building links with every one of the primary schools in the area. By the time they go to secondary school, every child has been exposed to hockey with Western Wildcats and a great many become regulars at our junior sessions.
We also have very strong links with our local secondary schools: Douglas Academy, Boclair Academy and Bearsden Academy, as well as a burgeoning connection with Bishopbriggs Academy. Barry Kane, a former 1st Team Captain and Scotland internationalist who still plays at the club, is Principal Teacher of P.E. at Douglas Academy and runs a regular hockey club at the school. Many of those who play at Douglas become involved both in our junior sessions and, eventually, play regularly for our senior teams.
Our Women’s section in particular relies heavily on the strong hockey culture at Douglas Academy as a feeder for its junior and senior teams. In addition, Glasgow Academy and The High School of Glasgow have strong links with the club and many of their current and former pupils play at Western Wildcats.
Every April Lenzie Academy uses Auchenhowie as the venue for its Schools Hockey Tournament which sees hockey teams from all over the west of Scotland converge on Milngavie to enjoy playing the hockey.
We work closely with Active Schools to develop our sport and our club. We have also provided coaching to the Cashback for Communities scheme, promoting sport in general and hockey in particular in East Dunbartonshire.
As well as junior coaching sessions which take place every evening from Monday – Thursday, in the first week of August we run the Wildcats Summer Camp, an event whose popularity grows with every year and hosts as many as 150 youngsters.
Finally, as part of the pilot East Dunbartonshire Council Sports Hub, Western Wildcats Hockey Club is working closely with the local authority and Sportscotland to continue our growth and development as a member section of Milngavie and Bearsden Sports Club.