Following his retirement from Saltus Grammar School after 34 years of teaching, Dafydd “Dai” Hermann-Smith is contemplating another major decision in his life.

After more than 40 years as a player, coach, official, mentor, and all round hockey buff, Hermann-Smith, the national squad coach, is considering walking away from the sport he loves.

“It’s time for somebody else to step up, and my life has to move on,” he said.

It might be that the present climate within sport has played a major role in Hermann-Smith’s soul searching. A legend in the Bermuda hockey community he has seen some major changes in his sport, and others, in Bermuda over the past few decades, not all of them good. And the coach believes the majority of sports are going downhill, rapidly.

“A large number of sports in Bermuda are going downhill because we are still approaching sport in a very amateur way, and unfortunately in this recession, where money is not abundant, sports seems to be a very low priority,” he said.

Success on the field over the course of 30 years, where he helped Bermuda advance to the quarter-finals in the World Veterans Cup in 1986, and captained his county team in the United Kingdom for 10 years, has given the national coach a first hand look at how the game has changed on and off the field.

“Even when you’ve had an aggressive, nasty game, people would stay and socialise,” he said. “Now both sides will leave the pitch and travel back to their own home base.

“Artificial pitches have improved the sport, they’ve improved the standard, they’ve improved it for the International Hockey Federation, they’ve improved it in terms of television ratings, they’ve improved it in maybe a world wide sport, but it’s actually killed something in spirit as well,” he said.

In the past, the location of hockey in Bermuda offered a clubhouse were the players would join together, even after a rough, physical game. They would talk it out and the junior players had the opportunity to learn from the senior players.

Now, with the new pitch area and teams attached to various restaurants and bars, that connection is lost. Smith believes it is damaging the game in Bermuda because the knowledge is not being passed on, and players either leave the sport, or don’t improve as much as they should, or could.

“We have one surface, but there’s actually no club atmosphere, there’s no spirit left in it” he said.

Hermann-Smith’s disappointment with hockey extends beyond the domestic game, and he fears Bermuda is being left behind on the international stage too.

“Other countries have surpassed us in terms of funding, in terms of professionalism, how they approach an event like the Central American and Caribbean Games.

“We are still amateurs, we are still fundraising, we are still doing things that players shouldn’t have to do,” he said. “Our sport’s teams were underprepared for the CAC Games.”

And the funding gap is growing, last year the Bermuda Hockey Federation received $35,000 in government funding, this year it was $25,000.

None of which is to say that Hermann-Smith doesn’t see positives in Bermuda hockey. The players continue to be the reason he stays committed to the sport, and the development camp that several Bermuda under-19 players attended speaks to a new generation of players.

Contemplating retirement, therefore, has not stopped him from thinking about the future of the game on the Island, a future he believes lies in the hands of three clubs: Ravens, Longtails and Budgies.

“[The] three members of Ravens who are working with juniors, producing juniors from Bermuda High School and Somersfield, if that continues it’s a plus,” he said. “Longtails, if they can continue producing juniors and bringing juniors into the sport. That’s a major plus.

“If Budgies realise where they came from, and start producing their own junior programme. In five years time, there is a future we can look at.”

However, Hermann-Smith believes that future will be threatened if Bermuda fail to send a team to compete in the Under-21 Pan Am Challenge Championship next March.

“If that does not take place, I am very pessimistic about this sport’s future,” he said.

Talking to Hermann-Smith you can tell that his passion for hockey burns as much as it ever did, and when asked he struggles to give a direct answer as to whether or not he will actually walk away from the game.

“Probably yes, possibly no,” is all he will say.

Still, after 34 years of teaching, and 45 of playing, coaching, and living hockey, retirement is not something that is going to come easily to Hermann-Smith.

“There’s simply too many memories, its been wonderful,” he said. “It upsets me because I still think I have something to give, but maybe it’s time to think about myself, my wife. I’ll miss it, but that’s life.”