TEN young Ballarat hockey players became silver medallists over the school holidays.<\/p>\n
As members of the under 14 South West Country Eagles team, the boys placed second in their division at the Junior State Hockey Championships in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Team manager Kevin Robillard said the squad only lost to one other team throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were five teams in the pool we were in and it was quite an achievement to get to the medal rounds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won our two games leading up to the grand final. The second game we played in the medal round was against the Red Devils, and it was a challenging game, but we won comfortably, five-three.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a side that finished first in the other pool, and it was a moment where we thought we had a chance to not just show up as a country team, but to achieve more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ended up playing the same team that we lost to in the pool round. We lost six-two in the pool round, but only lost one-nil in the final, so it was a really good game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across all divisions, the group is only the second-ever South West Country Eagles team to medal, and with more than 60 per cent of the current under 14s based in Ballarat, Robillard said they have become close-knit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players know each other and are building a core group coming through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them also played together in the Junior Country Championships as under 13s, and they didn\u2019t lose a game, so there\u2019s a closeness to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we\u2019ve come back from the tournament, they\u2019re wearing their state shirts to training, and a couple are trying to make a state team, so it\u2019s great for Hockey Ballarat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really wanting to push themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robillard said he didn\u2019t just credit the team\u2019s success to the players\u2019 talent, but also to the coaching team.<\/p>\n
\u201cJason Hargreaves and Luke Pougnault have a lot of experience, and have really taken this core group under their wing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEN young Ballarat hockey players became silver medallists over the school holidays. As members of the under 14 South West Country Eagles team, the boys placed second in their division at the Junior State Hockey Championships in Melbourne. Team manager Kevin Robillard said the squad only lost to one other team throughout the tournament. \u201cThere […]<\/p>\n