HBHS Inline Hockey team win National Title

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Inline Hockey National Tournament 2018 took place in New Plymouth over the weekend.  The event was hosted by the Ravens Inline Hockey Club, overlooking the wild waves of Fitzroy Beach.

This year there was a particularly strong representation from the middle and lower North Island. As well as schools, skilled inline hockey players combined to create provincial representative teams.  All the teams contained club and New Zealand age-group representatives.

On Saturday, the team played five pool games, totalling over 3 hours of hockey, winning all five. A determined New Plymouth Boys’ High School team gave the boys a scare in the final pool match on Sunday morning, but the team hung on to win by 1 goal, thereby entering the semi-finals as top qualifier.

HBHS won the semi-final 4-2, putting it into the final against a very strong and confident Hillcrest High School team. The HBHS team was behind, then level, then behind again - at one point by 2 goals - for almost the whole game. Then, with five minutes on the clock, HBHS moved in front for the first time at 6-5, then scored once more to take the score to 7-5. The boys then had to play out the game, with Hillcrest throwing everything, literally, at them. The boys were magnificent. They kept their heads, played mistake-free, smart hockey and wound down the clock to retain the National Champions title.

A special thank you to coach Hayden Goudswaard and all the fabulous parents, many of whom were able to travel down and support the boys.  Congratulations to the boys, New Zealand Secondary Schools National Champions.

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