Surrey Junior Academy Centres (JACs)
The Junior Academy Centre (or ‘JAC’) is part of the England Hockey’s Single System. At each age group between under 13 and under 17 there is one in most counties. The Single System is a nationwide scheme that progresses players from Club or School hockey through to the national squad. It aims to let each player train and play at their top level. To reach their top level players needed to enter the system at the bottom and work their way up it..jpg)
To get in to the JAC there are two possible routes:
(1) Be selected as one of the leading players from the JDC (local
development centre)
(2) Have been at the preceding JRPC (regional centre)
In the U13 and U14 age groups there are no lead in JRPCs, so except for some very talented players who are nominated to the JRPC at an older age group all players come from the JDCs.
Players who reached Tier 2 at the preceding JRPC will have a guaranteed place in the JAC squad.
As players improve at different rates those players returning from the JRPCs who only reached Tier 1 are assessed against those graduating from the JDCs and the remaining members of the JAC squad selected. This assessment is performed at the ‘JAC Assessment Day’ which, where required, is the first session of the JAC at the age group. We aim to have about 25 players in each squad.
The JAC programme consists of two distinct phases - the training phase and the competition phase. There are usually 5 assessment or training sessions for each of the squads, there are three match days for the girls and four for the boys. For each of these days a squad of up to 16 will be chosen. Being a member of the JAC squad does not guarantee selection for one of the match day squads.
At the end of the season in the U14 and older age groups the county will nominate players to next summer’s JRPCs.