“I’m proud to be chairman, I’m trying to do the best for a club that is full of wonderful and passionate people.”

Those are the words of Gloucester City Hockey Club chairman Adam Hutchinson, who has been at the helm for just over 12 months and is someone who has grown to love the sport as much as the club’s 450-plus playing members.

Hutchinson’s role is all the more interesting because, by his own admission, he is no expert on hockey – he got involved with the club through his daughter Lara, a Year 9 pupil at King’s School Gloucester and a passionate Gloucester player through and through.

But while hockey is something that has come into Hutchinson’s life relatively recently, he has a keen business brain and it’s that business acumen that appealed to Gloucester City.

“They approached me, I was just a parent,” said the 43-year-old. “The club had a brand new committee post-Covid and they highlighted the fact that they’d always had hockey players as chairperson. They wondered if they could have a businessman running the club.”

And as businessmen go, Hutchinson certainly fits the bill because he set up Gaudio Awards back in 2005, a company that has become the leading bespoke awards manufacturer in Europe, supplying trophies to events such as Formula 1, the Euros, and companies such as Coca-Cola and Unilever.

Unsurprisingly, Hutchinson is using the same principles that have underpinned his business success to benefit Gloucester City Hockey Club.

“Without solid foundations, long-term success is unsustainable,” he said. “When you have success you need to re-invest for the future, but success only comes from doing a really good job over and over again.

“You need to get the foundations right in order to achieve success.”

Hutchinson is very keen on the word ‘foundations’ and his first year as chairman certainly saw a number of changes that will surely reap benefits for years to come.

“The club were split over four separate pitches from Oxstalls through to St Peter’s for training and matches,” he said.

“There was no crossover between the men’s, women’s and junior sections.

“Now, 90 per cent of our matches and training take place at our new home, Oxstalls, which means that everyone is pretty much in the same place, we are a fully integrated club.

“We’re trying to develop the community feel within the club – not that it was bad before – but now we have every chance for it to flourish.”

That community feel is being enhanced by the new Oxstalls clubhouse, now home to Gloucester City Hockey Club, where players and supporters are able to meet, play or watch a game and then socialise afterwards.

And while there is obvious progress being made off the field, the building blocks are being put in place for what the club hope will be long-term success on the field for the multiple women’s and men’s teams.

The women’s flagship team are captained by Emily Rogers, someone who Hutchinson describes as “amazing and passionate”, while the men’s 1^st XI are led by club captain Richard Mobberley.

“Richard has been at the club since he was knee-high,” continued Hutchinson. “His dad Brian has been at the club forever. They are both Gloucester City through and through and embody what the club is all about – Begin, Belong and Excel.“

Both the men’s and women’s sections run four teams – the flagship teams both play in Division 1 North of their respective leagues – so Hutchinson, who was born in Stroud, and the club’s supporters will certainly be able to see plenty of games.

“I’ve come to love the sport,” he said. “I enjoy watching it, it’s very addictive.

“The club’s numbers are very strong and in terms of the talent pool it’s absolutely excellent.

“For the next two years, we’re quite happy with the levels we are playing at. The focus is on the junior pathway, making sure our talented youngsters reach their potential while at the same time building foundations for the adult teams.”

‘Building foundations’ comes under the heading ‘Investing for the future’ of course and the process has already started on the women’s playing side with Trevor Done being appointed women’s head performance coach.

“He’s been around the club for many years and boasts an impressive resume. He is overseeing the structure of the performance side of the ladies,” said Hutchinson, who lives midway between Gloucester and Cheltenham.

“He’s developing a player pathway which will see our best performing 16 or 17 year olds potentially playing for our 1sts and 2nds.”

And if it that proves a success, the same coaching structure will be introduced into the men’s section, possibly within the next six months.

Mike Salmon is the men’s coach and Hutchinson, who would like to continue as chairman for the next three or four years, added: “We have a very strong volunteer base on our coaching side and there is a very strong core of coaches on the men’s side which saw our 2nds promoted last season.”

Hutchinson, and the committee, has also overseen changes to the club’s internal communications, so it’s no wonder that when he looks back on his first 12 months, he says: “It’s been an exciting year.”

This year promises to be just as exciting with one of Hutchinson’s aims being to get more state school pupils playing hockey at Gloucester.

“We have many young players who have the passion for playing for the club for many years to come, and are all making quite an impression at the club,” said Hutchinson.

“Many of our younger players have been playing for the adults since the start of last season. We have a number of performance players who could be playing for the ladies’ 2s and 1s in the future.

“There are some outstanding young players who have dreams of playing for England, which is well within reach given our unique club structure and coaching.”