TigerTurf Hockey Product Manager Named Black Sticks Player of the Year
23/10/2008
TigerTurf Product Manager for Hockey and Black Sticks defenceman, Blair Hopping has been named the New Zealand Hockey Player of the Year for the 2008 international season. Hockey New Zealand, the sport’s official governing body, honoured Hopping with the award at the annual NZHL Dinner in September.
Hopping says the honour was a great finish to a successful international season, which began with a strong personal performance at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in February, and peaked with an impressive Black Sticks performance at the Beijing Olympics. “I was named the Player of the Tournament at the OQT at the beginning of the year, so it has been really satisfying to start and finish the season strong. I thought I may have been in the running for Player of the Year, but you never want to jump ahead!”
Hopping has been with TigerTurf for about a year and a half, dealing primarily with Hockey Associations and some schools. He says his hockey experience is invaluable in his role from both a sales and product development perspective. “You get to know the Associations through playing and you develop personal relationships with the Association heads over the years, which gives you an automatic foundation of respect when you start talking to them with your sales hat on. I think our customers definitely take notice of my points of view on the playing capabilities of a surface and what they should be looking for when they’re looking for a surface.” TigerTurf has a good name within the hockey fraternity according to Hopping, and he says the company’s ongoing commitment to innovation has a lot to do with that. “The Product Mangers get involved in product development at TigerTurf, which is why we are responsible for so much innovation in surfaces for a range of sports.
My own experience and knowledge of hockey surface types and what players are after is taken seriously by our R&D team. The R & D division for hockey is headquartered in the UK, but we are always giving feedback as to what’s working, and what we can do to continue to improve our products, and that feedback is taken seriously and reflected in the products we put on the market.”
Black Sticks experience is becoming a bit of a tradition in the Hockey Product Manager role at TigerTurf, with Blair taking the reins from previous Product Manager and former Black Sticks Vice-Captain, Darren Smith. “Darren left Tiger Turf to take on a role with Midland Hockey as their Coaching Development Officer. He approached me and said he thought this role would suit me and that I’d fit with what they were looking for. So far, it looks like he was right!”
Hopping has played 180 tests so far, but will be taking a break from hockey until after his January wedding. He will pick up the club season and the internationals when they start again in May/June next year. Longer term, Hopping says he plans to play at least until the Commonwealth Games and World Cup in 2010 if he is selected, both of which are in India. From there, his fiancée is supportive of the idea that he carries on playing until the London Olympics in 2012, but he suspects her motives are more closely related to her love of shopping than hockey!
If you would like to speak with Blair Hopping about hockey surface requirements for your association or club, he can be contacted at bhopping@tigerturf.co.nz.
