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By Ben Donaldson
Even as winter sets in, Mahurangi College head girl Sarah Wilson can’t stop swimming, as she travels off to Tasmania for a trans-Tasman underwater hockey event in July.
The 17-year-old was selected for the New Zealand Under-18 squad this year and the team will compete in Hobart from July 1 to 9 against two Australian sides and a combined team.
This comes after she made the northern regional team last year and competed in three trials to make the national squad.
Sarah has played underwater hockey for five years after starting out in the college junior open side, which won silver at nationals in 2012 and gold in 2013.
“Both my sisters played and I thought let’s try it out,” she says. “From there I just got hooked.”
In 2014 she played for the junior girls side, which took out bronze at nationals, and then the senior mixed team, which won gold.
She trains three times a week with the senior open side at college, but does four pool sessions and three weights sessions a week for the U18 national side.
She also attends a training camp once a month in Rotorua involving fitness work and games, which she says is ‘intense’.
“My family is really supportive,” Sarah says. “They’re always looking out for me ,making sure I have a balanced lifestyle.
“School is really good too, letting me use missed assessment forms to help me cope with the extra commitment.”
The Mahurangi College senior open team, which Sarah captains, will head to the regional championship on June 10 after losing many of its top players at the end of last year, as well as their long standing coach, Terry Axford.
But the developing side is still looking promising.
“There is definitely potential there,” she says. “I would say we have a chance of getting to nationals.”
With such a strong string of teams, Sarah says a lot of new people are joining the sport at the college.
“We must have had about 40 people join the junior section this year. Underwater hockey is definitely getting bigger in New Zealand. It’s the first year regionals have split junior and senior teams over two weekends.”
Her goal is to make the new Zealand U23 national side in 2018 and then the New Zealand elite team.
