Early October this year, the Confederação Brasileira de Hóquei sobre a Grama e Indoor (CBHG) sealed a partnership with GGB Plast Toys, a company based in Caxias do Sul, state of Rio Grande do Sul (south region), that produces plastic toys and educational board games and puzzles for children and teenagers.
About three years ago, the company decided to start producing plastic hockey sticks and balls believing in hockey's growth potential in Brazil. Now the hockey kits are part of their catalogue and each kit contains 16 sticks and 16 balls.
One of the goals of this partnership is to spread the existence of plastic hockey sticks and balls made in Brazil as an alternative material to facilitate the hockey practice for children and young teenagers, arousing the interest of newcomers into hockey. Schools, projects and universities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states are already using the alternative materials in their hockey activities.
The president of CBHG, Bruno Patricio Oliveira, stated about the importance of the partnership: "We believe that this partnership will be important for the development of hockey in the country, especially among schools, sport's projects and universities. The plastic sticks and balls are greate for the first contact with the sport by children, teenagers and PE teachers that have little hockey knowledge, allowing them to enjoy our sport at their own pace and with lots of fun. Once they get involved and excited about hockey, we believe that the next step is to acquire and use the standard materials."
The recently stablished partnership goes along with strategic medium/long term plan of CBHG to promote and facilitate the hockey practice among children and teenagers in Brazil, particularly in schools, sport's projects and universities.
