University of Edinburgh and Scottish Hockey announce new centre of excellence partnership – Scottish Hockey

Scottish Hockey and the University of Edinburgh have announced a landmark partnership to establish a new Centre of Excellence, commencing today. As part of this exciting collaboration, the Scottish National Women’s and Men’s teams will relocate their permanent training base to the Peffermill Playing Fields, utilising the world-class facilities both at Peffermill and within the Pleasance Sports Complex.

The partnership includes a significant investment by the University, having recently appointed SPORTEX (with Polytan) to lay a new state-of-the-art artificial turf pitch on Hockey Pitch #2. This enhancement underscores the University’s commitment to supporting elite hockey performance and fostering athletic excellence.

Mark Munro, Director of Sport & Active Health at the University of Edinburgh, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership: “We are delighted to be reuniting with Scottish Hockey to support the continued development of performance within the national senior teams. The University continues to focus on hockey as one of our priority sports and has a long tradition of student-athlete players progressing to both Scottish and British teams. Most notably, Sarah Robertson’s selection for Paris later this month, having previously won a silver medal in Tokyo, exemplifies our tradition of excellence. This is a very exciting development, and one we look forward to supporting fully.”

Chris Duncan, Head Coach of Scotland Women’s National Team, also shared his excitement: “We are delighted to be able to come to this agreement of a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Hockey. Their world-class facilities, desire for continuous development, and exceptional level of client service are a brilliant asset to us as we look to achieve our ambitions in the years ahead. We look forward to having Peffermill and The University of Edinburgh as a base for our performance programmes, which will support our athletes and our programme.”

This collaboration marks a significant step forward in the development of hockey in Scotland, providing athletes with unparalleled resources and support to excel on the national and international stage.