History on the horizon at Vantage U18s

Excitement is building for this year’s Vantage National U18 Tournaments with the first games to take place on July 7th. The games will then continue throughout the week to finish up on July 13th. The Vantage National U18’s will be a chance for players, coaches, managers and umpires alike to showcase their expertise and gain exposure on a national level. This year the girls’ tournament is set to be hosted in Christchurch, and the boys’ tournament in Hawke’s Bay.

For aspiring young hockey players in New Zealand, this is an unmissable opportunity to demonstrate their skills, and potentially we will be seeing future stars in the making who will one day represent the country on the global stage.

In Christchurch we will see the girls’ U18 teams competing for the Amanda Hooper Memorial Trophy, an award that holds great significance as it was named after a former Black Stick who sadly passed away in the Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Canterbury will be eager to continue their winning streak this year to repeat their victory from the 2023 U18’s tournament, where they clutched the title in the final against North Harbour.

In Hawke’s Bay we will see the boys’ U18 teams competing for the Paul Ackerley Memorial Trophy, named after one of our greats who played in the team that won gold in the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976, and formerly coached our Women’s Black Sticks team, passing away in 2011. North Harbour will be hoping for an historic 4-peat win this year, having won the final yet again against Taranaki in the 2023 Tournament with a 4-2 lead.

Hockey New Zealand Technical and Umpires Manager Colin French comments, “Our national U18 tournaments provide very important opportunities for the learnings, development, and growth of our officials. These U18 events are currently the first time we bring all our participants together for a national tournament which enables connection, competition, and talent identification. These tournaments are also an integral step in the HNZ national officials pathway with new tournament officials identified and appointed primarily from our nationwide regional aged group festivals [U16 aged groups] and community club hockey. Our key strategy is to ensure a wide reach into our associations and to provide a strong learning environment at these tournaments led by accredited coaches and developers, with all officials having been identified and appointed by the Hockey NZ Officials Advisory Group.”