Black Stick to Open New Sports Facility at Waikato Dio

“Waikato Diocesan currently has around a 90 per cent participation rate in team sport, while the national average is around 48 percent,” says Marilyn. “We now have an excellent training and coaching facility which will allow us to continue supporting our students as they excel in team and individual sports.”

New Zealand Black Stick Kate Mahon will take time out of her hectic Hockey schedule next week to officially open a new multi-purpose sporting facility at her alma mater, Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. 

Mahon will captain an All Star team featuring former Dio Hockey stars as they challenge the current Dio 1st Xl in the first official match to take place on the new TigerTurf field.

Waikato Diocesan School Acting Principal, Marilyn Main, says that she is delighted that Kate along with other former students will join the school community at the opening.

Main says that the new TigerTurf surface provides Dio with an excellent facility that will support the school’s ethos of encouraging all students to participate in a sporting activity they personally enjoy.

“Waikato Diocesan currently has around a 90 per cent participation rate in team sport, while the national average is around 48 percent,” says Marilyn. “We now have an excellent training and coaching facility which will allow us to continue supporting our students as they excel in team and individual sports.”

Marilyn adds that the new surface will also enable Waikato Diocesan to give back to the community by providing a great training and playing facility for neighbouring schools.

The new multi-use facility includes the hockey field, eight tennis courts and a cricket lane, all of which have been surfaced with TigerTurf Tournament 1000, a high tech sports surface with a high performance shock pad. The surface is fully lit to allow for year-round training.

TigerTurf Operations Manager Ross Galloway says the Tournament 1000 surface was an obvious choice for Dio as it is technologically advanced and is designed to be suitable for a wide range of activities.

“Tournament 1000 is a dense and extremely durable surface, while the 5mm shock pad makes it kind to developing joints,” says Ross. “It is a low maintenance, versatile surface on which a number of different sports can be played, making it ideal for this kind of multi-use facility.”