‘Hockey becomes like a family in itself’: Re

The community-based sports club is often recognised as a key site for the development of social capital. Intergenerational ties and connections to place can generate a strong sense of identity and can foster practices of psychological and material support. In this sense, community sports clubs can also be seen as an extension of the family. We examine social capital and Ray Pahl’s ‘personal communities’ through an ethnographic study of women hockey players’ discussions about their intimate connections and engagement in family-like practices in an Australian metropolitan field hockey club. Women hockey players’ experiences of family-like bonds are threatened by the drive towards competitive growth and increasing professionalisation as local sporting bodies strive for survival and success. Their narratives reveal experiences of loss and conflicted relationships in the context of these broader structural changes in the club’s organisation and operations. Ultimately, the strength of a local sports club as a site for the development of social capital is called into question as traditional networks are eroded in the drive for growth, professionalisation and economic survival