Hockey – North Harbour U18 Women – Gold Medal winners – Outdoor
Ashley Brown, Daniella Hall, Marie Dallmer-Zerbe and Tamsin Lockie were part of the amazing team that won Gold at the National U18 Women’s Hockey Championship in Christchurch in July. Madison Cels (ex WGHS) played as goalie.
The week-long tournament had 22 Teams from across NZ. The team came out on top in pool play after three games unbeaten. They went on to beat Central Otago 2:0 in the knockout round, and a 3:0 win over Waiarapa in the quarter-finals. They had more of a challenge against Auckland in the semi-finals, but came away with a 3:1 win.
The gold medal match was against Manawatu – another unbeaten team. Manawatu scored first in a Penalty Corner after 8 minutes of play. But Harbour came back with a brilliant piece of team play within 1 minute to even it up. From there, it was history for Manawatu. North Harbour played thrilling team hockey in the crisp Canterbury sunshine to win 3:1. Over the whole tournament, there were only three goals scored against North Harbour, and all came from penalty corners. There were no goals scored against them in field play – the only team in the tournament to achieve this! The team camaraderie was amazing. There was lots of laughter, super loud singing, and when it came down to it – the hard work and dedication over many years, combined with this super tight team, secured their win. Below are some photos of the North Harbour U18 Indoor Women’s team that won the gold medal at the NZ U18 Indoor Champs in December 2023 (after school finished).
North Harbour had a rocky start – losing their two coaches to Covid the day before flying to Levin for this inaugural U18 Event. We were lucky enough to have the men’s team coaches stand in for a five-minute briefing before the games and sideline support. The team gelled amazingly well, lots of singing, laughing and total support for each other. We came away from the tournament unbeaten with gold around our necks!
Daniella Hall is the only current Westlake girl in the team, but ex Westlakers include Jess Reynolds, Bella Holt, Maia Houkamau and Madi Cells.
By Carolina Parslow