For the first time in their history, both West Herts Hockey Club’s men’s and women’s first teams are preparing for the start of campaigns in the National League this weekend.

The club’s men have enjoyed two years in the second tier of domestic hockey, while the women’s firsts are preparing for their first season at the same level.

The sport has arguably rarely had better exposure than this year, after Team GB’s women’s side emerged victorious from the Rio Olympics last month – and one of their coaching staff, John Hurst, has now joined West Herts to work with the goalkeepers of both teams.

On the pitch, the “Rio Effect”, as the club terms it, is making waves to bring in new members to the club; the numbers of junior and women players is already swelling as a result.

Both the men’s and women’s sides had sought new coaches during the summer, with men’s coach Matt Grinham leaving the club to spend more time with his family. Mike  Delaney, from New Zealand, replaces him.

It had been hoped the women would have a new coach in place for their debut National League season, but this has not proved possible and so team manager Harriet Preest and her staff will again be at the helm, having helped guide them to the East League title last time around.

They will begin start their campaign tomorrow against Harleston Magpies at the New Field in Watford at 1.30pm, while the men will take on Oxted at the same venue on Sunday at 2pm.

This weekend will also mark Hurst’s first club involvement since applauding Team GB’s players in the gold medal presentation in Brazil last month.

His arrival may be seen as somewhat of a coup; especially with his previous experience in the development of Team GB goalkeeping star Maddie Hinch.

The veteran St Albans player told the Watford Observer he was delighted to be involved for the new season.

He said: “It’s always a pleasure to work with local clubs. It’s great to be able to put something back into the local area in terms of hockey.

“I hope we can help develop the talent in this squad; it’s obviously there, because otherwise these players wouldn’t be playing in the National League. They contacted me over the summer and asked if I had the time to spare for coaching during the season – I said I would be happy to.”

When asked about his time in Rio, you get the feeling Hurst could talk about it all day – and just five minutes with him reveals the meticulous preparation he puts into his work.

He said: “It was an incredible experience in Brazil. There’s an awful lot of background work which goes into preparing for over three years prior to the Games to make sure  everything is in place. It’s a confidence game more than anything, and the momentum builds and to be honest I wasn’t particularly nervous ahead of our first game of the group [a 2-1 win over the USA].

“Had we lost to them, there would still have been four games left in the group. Argentina was huge because it’s such a major sport over there. We deserved to win and then having three on the bounce with India as well really built our confidence up. They put in an extra round in Rio, so there were eight games in 13 days; that took a lot of preparation in how we could best utilise our training and recovery around the constraints.”