We are beyond thrilled to announce that our U15 Hockey Boys have placed 4th at the Tanner Cup Tournament this week!! This is HUGE news for Nui as this is the first time we have been to this invite-only tournament and we played some highly skilled teams from around the country.
Our team is made up of players from our Nui 1st and 2nd squad, along with 3 players from Tauhara College. We managed to squeeze in one practice as a team, and then it was straight off to tournament!
The first game saw us go down 3-2 to Westlake Boys High, then we had a solid win against Kings College 2-1. From there we drew 1-1 with Cambridge High and beat Christs College 5-0 which put us top of our pool and into a quarter final against Timaru Boys High where we won 3-2. Needless to say, we were ruffling some feathers!
In the semi final we lost 3-0 to St Kents College, and then we suffered a loss of 5-0 to New Plymouth Boys High in the Bronze Medal match.
While we didn't bring home a medal, we certainly brought home some well earned recognition as a team and lots of respect from some top hockey schools in the country. To earn 4th place out of 20 teams is a massive accomplishment and we want to celebrate the incredible efforts of our players, as well as their coach, Reagan White and coach/manager, Hilary Samuel. We appreciate the dedication and high expectations from Reagan and Hilary for our players and for their unwavering support and the amount of time they put in to make this possible--it's truly admirable!
A shout out must also go to our incredible parents who turned up to do washing, bring lollies and supplies, and to cheer on our boys. Thank you!
This tournament has shown what can be achieved through commitment, determination, teamwork and believing in yourselves. We hope this success encourages other students to pick up a hockey stick and give it a go because opportunities like this start with taking that first step onto the turf.
The future of hockey at Nui is looking bright and we can't wait to see what comes up next!
Go Nui!!!
