Young players shine bright

With the Hockey Junction pre-season matches completed as of 21 February this year, many hockey players are looking towards the official tournament later in the year.

Southern Gauteng Hockey Association president and organiser of Hockey Junction, Allistar Fredericks said he was pleased at how smoothly the matches went.

“It was definitely a good preparation for the upcoming season. Also just getting the kids out on the field after the lockdown was exciting,” he said.

“The lockdown just showed how much players, umpires and coaches missed the game. It was also a good opportunity for tech table staff, umpires and coaches to make a bit of revenue after a very long time.”

Some finals results saw a few of the Pretoria-based Blue Crane Rebels in the finals for the U12 girls, U18 girls and boys. The U18 Rebels girls put on a good game during their match against Beaulieu Hockey Academy (BHA) on 14 February.

According to Rebels’ coach Michaela Roos, her girls played well while battling the heat and for a team that had trained together no more than two weeks before the match. “I think the match started a little slow. I wanted them to utilise their chances in the circle and convert them into goals. I wanted each to have personal goals as well in the match, such as scoring goals or making good passes,” she said.

Roos added, “I told them every two minutes ‘you owe me one’. That either being a goal or a penalty corner’. Above all, I wanted them to enjoy the match. If they are happy, I’m happy.”

Goals started coming in the last half of the match, starting with a penalty stroke to the Rebels, scored by Deidre Treadwell. BHA came back with a tap in by Tamika Kock.

Treadwell, Suricka Nortje and Nadia Nel all contributed to the final score of the match being 4–1 after some good tacking and intercepts that were not in BHA’s favour.

The final played by the Rebels against the Dragons saw them win 3–0 to clinch the

Related Article: 

Dragons put on tough fight in Hockey Junction final