Local hockey stars bring home gold

SIX young members of the Wonthaggi Underwater Hockey Club won gold in the 2018 Underwater Hockey National Titles held in Perth recently.
Captain Brad Peters, vice captain Kasey Hoskins, Darby Hoskins, Ben Robinson, Alexandra Dhar and Nathan Thatcher featured in the winning U15 Victorian team.
After a successful week long championship, the Victorian team came face to face with the Western Australia side, winning six goals to five in what was a tense and hard fought battle for the title.
Western Australia had won the U15 Division four out of the last five years, and Victoria was determined to spoil its pool dominance.
Victoria had not had a winning team since 2009.
“We ended up playing Western Australia a number of times throughout the week, including the round robin games, semi final and then again in the gold medal playoff – they are a very strong and well drilled team,” Kasey said.
Darby said Western Australia had beaten them earlier in the week, and he was nervous to come up against them again. However, a good start from the Victorian team in the final led them to victory.
Victoria scored first, but Western Australia struck back quickly to even the score. It was a seesawing game with scores tied three all at half time.
The pressure was intense and the crowd was screaming for their respective teams.
“We continued to push hard despite being down early in the second half. When we were penalised and a player down, it looked like Western Australia was going to swim over the top of us, however, we came storming back to win gold by just one goal,” Kasey said.
All the games were filmed and live streamed, including the finals, and can be viewed via the Underwater Hockey Australia YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channe/UC4dHs8nn8_yXcg6v0o9St4w.
The Victorian U19 team – also stacked full with Wonthaggi players – had a great week, playing some great team hockey.
They came in fourth, just missing out on the bronze medal to Tasmania.
Victoria also competed in the Elite Men and Women Divisions.
Several Wonthaggi players were subsequently selected for Australian Training Squads – and will now be attending interstate training camps aiming for national selection in the Trans-Tasman teams, which will tour New Zealand later this year in October.
The Wonthaggi Underwater Hockey Club train each week at the Wonthaggi pool on a Thursday night.
The club provides a safe and supportive environment for interested players (juniors and seniors) to come and try the sport, including borrowing the required equipment – fins, mask, snorkel, caps, gloves and sticks.
The juniors start at 7pm and the seniors start at 8pm.
Anyone interested in playing locally or checking out this fantastic sport should contact the club via the Facebook page.

Proud: Wonthaggi underwater hockey players Brad Peters, Kasey Hoskins, Darby Hoskins, Ben Robinson, Alexandra Dhar and Nathan Thatcher, pictured with their team mates, were thrilled to be part of the winning U15s team in the 2018 Underwater Hockey National Titles.

Short URL: /?p=23866

Posted by Sarah Vella on Jan 23 2018. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry