Hockey Girls’
This is my last year at Havelock North High School
and so, I am sad to say my last year as captain of
the HNHS 1st XI Girls Hockey team. Last year the
currant coaching team chose me for captain, and
even though I was told last year that I would be
captain for 2014, I didn’t want to take this for granted,
because to be a captain is an honour not a right. So to
start the season off my brother and I organized a team
building session at the Havelock North Fire Station, with
team bonding and trust games and we finished with drinks,
snacks and photos in a fire truck. This was to introduce the
new team members to the rest of the team because, for
some reason we had lost almost half of our 2013 team. But
thankfully we had picked up some, more than adequate
replacement players from other schools and the
intermediate.
Firstly I would like to congratulate Olivia Campbell, Kaitlin
Allan and Holly Brittin for making the HB Championship
Under 15 team, Georgia Hulls and Amy Brittin for being
selected for the HB Premier Under 15 team and also
Kelsey Ulyatt, who along with myself made the Hawkes
Bay special selections team to play New South Wales on
Thursday 25th September who we bet 1-0. A huge thank
you also goes out to our coach, Greg Brittin and our
management team, Rachel Hulls and Karen Brittin. I would
also like to acknowledge our supports and parents who
attended our games and were also a large driving force
behind our success.
During our Hawke’s Bay 2014 season we went well, beating teams that we were meant to beat and drawing against
teams that usually would have beaten us in the past, while
holding our own against the two top teams. Enough so,
that we made the top four of division one, a feat that hasn’t
been accomplished by our Havelock North Girls First XI
team in quite a few years.
In the exchange with Wairarapa College, our team played
one of the best defensive games this year and only lost
3-0, against a team that is predominantly seniors and
provincial representatives and is the highest ranked school
girls’ team in New Zealand. In earlier years we had been
losing against them with double-digit scores, but for the
past two years we have been lowering the score and maybe next year could be the year. In our exchange with sister
school Tawa we beat them 1-0, I was happy with that, but
unbeknownst to us the best was yet to come, as we were
going to meet Tawa again.
Hockey Girls 1st XI
Back Row:
2nd Row:
(Manager)
Front Row:
Allan
Absent:
Abbey Cullen, Amy Brittin, Lily Matson, Georgia Hulls, Oakleigh Duncan
Holly Brittin, Annah McPherson, Marleen Slabbekoorn, Rachel Hulls
Olivia Campbell, Kelsey Ulyatt, Krista Hine, (Captain), Libby Ford, Kaitlin
Freyja Appleyard
Tournament week in Carterton went so well, our team
began to score goals, 17 for and only 1 against (the team
that beat us 1-0 w ent on to win the tournament), we had
five wins and unfortunately one loss, that loss put us in the
bottom half of the top eight to play for fifth to eighth, and on
my birthday we won the next game 2-0 that put us in the
play offs for fifth and sixth which is where we played Tawa
again. I was first to score, then Kelsey scored but ¾ into the
game I had to go off with a head injury after a collision with
an opposition player and instead of my team capitulating
with the loss of their captain they went on to win 3-0, I could
not have been more proud of them. Their structure matured
in that final game, and showed that next season they are
going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Shakespeare once said, “Some are born great, some
achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon
them.” I am not arrogant enough to say that I am a great
captain but what I will say is, that this year I captained a
great team. Why? Because all the teams we played this
year are 70% to 90% year 12 and 13s but our team is 99%
year 9,10,11 and 1% year 13 that was me. So I expect
bigger and greater thing from this team and my challenge
to them, is if Tournament week falls on the first week of
September, then they have to win on September 4th, as a
birthday present to me that will be my legacy. So for me
it’s, “my captain my captain” or “second star to the right
and straight on til’ morning” or my favorite “to infinity and
beyond”. I Krista Hine captain of the 2013 and 2014, Havelock North High School 1st XI Girls Hockey team, thank
you. But I won’t say goodbye because goodbye means
going away and going away means forgetting.
Krista Hine