How top coach Williams is helping transform Horsham’s hockey fortunes
Six months ago, at the close of the 2025-26 season, Horsham’s men’s hockey was not in a great place with the three senior teams all being relegated, the first team losing its status in the South East Premier Division.
It was time to rebuild and, having worked with ‘player-coaches’ for five seasons, that started by finding an established senior coach to lead from the sidelines rather than on the pitch.
Not that John Williams, appointed to the role vacated by Horsham stalwart Dom Male, doesn’t play. But he restricts his on-field time to the summer International Masters circuit, for England over-55s. Winters he dedicates his time to coaching.
A Brighton boy, educated at Brighton College, he coached at his hometown club for 11 years and at other clubs in the South East including Lewes. Yet hockey has also taken him around the world coaching in Jordan, New Zealand, Portugal and the USA.
He is qualified to level four within the FIH (International Hockey Federation) and level three within the seemingly ever-changing English structure. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Initially he was recruited to oversee the junior sides, before accepting the role of working with the senior men’s teams. This win-win situation ensures the academy will continue to thrive bottom up, while securing results top down.
His appointment has already had a significant effect on the park. The team he inherited may have been a mash-up of last season’s second team that was demoted from this league and those first team players who stayed on after relegation. Yet the side are currently level on points at the top of the table.
Williams refuses to be drawn on whether promotion could be a possibility. Like all dyed-in-the-wool coaches he takes life one game at a time.
“I never look at league tables,” he says. “For me sport is about the process of winning one game at a time and, if we follow that process, we’ll keep on adding to our points tally.”