James Psarakis is delving into the untold stories of some of hockey's biggest names and community heroes.
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The prominent former Tamworth cricketer is the host of a new hockey podcast - Beyond Hockey.
An avid listener of podcasts himself, Psarakis, who is the state teams manager for Hockey NSW, thought it would be a good way for the sport to reach different parts of the community.
"Hockey has got a lot of untold stories out there so I thought I'd tap into them," he said.
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In the episodes released so far, he has spoken with current Kookaburras forward Kurt Lovett, Tamworth's own Kate Jenner and prominent umpire Zeke Newman, who would be no stranger to local audiences recently umpiring the Tamworth first grade men's grand final.
One of the things Psarakis said he most enjoys about the podcasts is the conversational style. It is something he has tried to bring to the series.
"I just want it to be pretty casual and not too formal about anything, just basically start at their childhood and talk about their pathway growing up and how they got into hockey because hockey's not your mainstream sport," he said.
"A lot of them it's due to their families, which is a pretty common thing."
He has enjoyed it.
"It's been good.
"During the COVID my stuff kind of quietened down with all the nationals being cancelled so it's kind of kept me busy, as well as being a COVID officer for hockey," Psarakis said.
The response has been pretty positive, and the podcast has even attracted a few listeners over in America and the UK, which is nice, he said.
And he already has some ideas to develop it further.
"I think the next step probably is to get the community involved, reach out and see who people want on and if they have any questions for that person," he said.
It's not just listeners he has been scoring.
He has hit the ground running in the 2020/2021 cricket season, posting an unbeaten century (102) for Western Suburbs in their Premier League opening round win over Blacktown Mounties.
Now in his fifth season with Wests, it was Psarakis' fourth century but first white-ball ton.
"From that aspect it was quite good, and batting with our captain Josh (Clarke), who is a very good batsmen, just made it a lot easier," he said.
The pair shared an unbroken partnership of 195 for the third wicket, with Clarke making 110no.
Psarakis was steady early in his innings but accelerated late with his last 50 coming off not that many balls. The hundred though wasn't really on his mind. It was really "just trying to get that big score for the team".
They ended up with 2-299 and then restricted Bankstown to 9-241.
Psarakis conceded he wasn't initially "overly keen" to start the season, with the pandemic pushing the motivation to the side a little bit. But it was "good to get back into it" he said.
And good to get a win with Wests, in his time with them, notoriously slow starters.
They will though need more of what Psarakis and Clarke produced in the first round this weekend as they look to chase down UNSW's massive 4-368 (dec).
