The inaugural South African Premier Hockey League (PHL) has taken a step closer to becoming reality today, with the announcement that the official player draft will take place this Saturday (6^th August 2016).

The draft, which has been inspired by American sports leagues, such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL), is a squad selection process that sees the coaches of each PHL team take turns, based on an order sequence drawn out of a hat, to choose from a pool of eligible players.

The draft commences at 10am on Saturday morning and interested parties will be able to follow it live online, via the new PHL website (www.premierhockeyleague.co.za) which launches late on Friday evening.

Thanks to support from the Department of Sport & Recreation, the inaugural PHL will consist of both a men’s and women’s competition and will run over four weekend’s – from Saturday 3^rd September to Sunday 25^th September 2016 (inclusive). All matches will be played at the Randburg Astro in Johannesburg.

Both the SA men’s and women’s U21 national teams will be playing in the PHL as franchise teams. This is to help them prepare for the Junior World Cup that takes place later this year. The men’s U21 team will play as the Golden Gate Gladiators and the women’s U21 team will play as the Lip Ice Namaqualand Daisies. Squads will consist of 18 players. The two U21 teams will, however be allowed to select a squad of 20 players.

Both the men’s and women’s PHL competitions will consist of a league stage and a play-off stage. Each team will play each other once in the league stage. This means each team will play five games in the league stage. The top four teams in the log will progress to the semi-finals. The losing semi-finalists will play-off for third and fourth respectively and the winning semi-finalists will progress to the finals of the men’s and women’s competitions.

“The player draft system is an exciting new innovation for the PHL and we are sure it will generate much talk-ability and debate amongst hockey fans in this country”, said Mike Du Plessis, the President of the South African Hockey Association (SAHA).

“The PHL forms a key part of SAHA’s high performance pipeline which is aimed at better equipping our national teams for international competition. We are especially grateful to the support and investment from the Department of Sport & Recreation, as well as the belief they have shown in the future of hockey in this country”, added Marissa Langeni, the CEO of SAHA.

Meanwhile, the PHL has also revealed the head coaches for the 2016 PHL teams.  The immediate priority of these coaches will be to select their playing squads during Saturday’s draft.

Men’s PHL Teams

• The Every Sun Addo Elephants will be coached by Cheslyn Gie
• The Drakensberg Dragons will be coached by Sihle Ntuli
• The Garden Route Gazelles will be coached by Steve Evans
• The Golden Gate Gladiators will be coached by Gareth Ewing
• The Mapungubwe Mambas will be coached by Krinesan Moodley
• The Maropeng Cavemen will be coached by Mark Saunders

 Women’s PHL Teams

• The Blyde River Bunters will be coached by Lindsey Wright
• The Madikwe Rangers will be coached by Robin van Ginkel
• The Lip Ice Namaqualand Daisies will be coached by Patrick Tshushani
• The Orange River Rafters will be coached by Pietie Coetzee-Turner
• The Young Solutions St Lucia Lakers will be coached by Lenise Marias
• The Winelands Wings will be coached by Ryan Pillay

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