NZISA Men's Winners of NZ Heritage Hockey Tournament!
What a weekend!!
NZISA’s moto that was drilled into players was “Don’t worry about who’s not here… you’re here that’s all that matters”.
For those who were able to come along to the inaugural New Zealand Heritage Hockey Tournament over Easter Weekend were treated to some fast and entertaining hockey.
NZISA Women’s
Our women’s team had a tough weekend with the team meeting at turf for the first time on the Friday morning. The first game against NZ Maori was their best result in terms of score which was 2 all, but unfortunately losing in the sudden death shoot out. NZ Maori were eventually the winners of the women’s tournament.
Saturday was against NZ Pasifika and it was also a tough one with some players unavailable due to prior commitments, but they played hard and with passion. The strength of the NZ Pasifika team came through with a 0–4 loss to NZISA.
Sunday against the Hockey NZ Development team was always going to be a tough one with a well drilled young development side, but the women held them to a 4-0 score line.
Bronze medal game against NZ Pasifika again was definitely a game of two halves, with the first half having been the best hockey the ladies have played all weekend. But a lack of subs and the strength of key players in the NZ Pasifika team made it hard for our team who came away with a 0-6 loss, which was not a reflection of the team as it was a hard campaign with limited preparation.
A special thanks to our management team with Paresh Bhikha (from North Harbour ISC) as Coach, Vinod Narsai (Auckland ISC) as Manager and Naveena Hira (North Harbour ISC) as Assistant Coach. All worked well together and with limited time were able to get the best from our players.
NZISA Men’s
For our men’s it was a great weekend with limited time together, and their result and efforts are well deserved.
The men went into camp on Thursday meeting for team training at Strathmore (school turf) where they then met at the accommodation in Manukau where they all stayed for four nights.
Friday’s game against NZ Maori showed what our boys could do with a convincing 5-1 win over a strong NZ Maori side.
Saturday against NZ Pasifika was the game of the tournament for the men’s side with a hard fought 4-3 win. In this game the team showed great depth and passion to hold onto the win and booking a spot in the final.
Sunday against Hockey NZ Development was a preview of the final with the men’s side having the luxury of resting key players and giving the younger ones a good run which led to a loss of 0-3.
Monday was Finals Day with the game against Hockey NZ Development. End to end with great team work on coaching saw the men’s at 2 all at full time. Experience was the key with senior players keeping a cool head in the shoot out to give NZISA the win!
A massive thank you to the management team of Yogesh Hari (Pukekohe ISC) as Coach, Vanita Sukha (NZISA) as Manager and Ketan Hari (Pukekohe ISC) as Assistant Coach. From what I saw the key was how they were managed by the leaders in the team and the coaching staff.
Well done to both NZISA teams and management! A full report on the tournament can be found here.
Photos courtesy of Kim Wihare. Check out her Facebook page Kim Wihare Pics for all the great photos taken at the tournament.
