Friday, 7 February 2025 | Term 1 | Week

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Day | Views 818

Mahurangi performs well at the NZ Schools National Underwater Hockey Champs

The 30^th Annual NZ Schools National Underwater Hockey Champs were held in Rotorua over the past (Sept 4-7^th 2014) weekend.

Mahurangi College had 2 teams playing in the competition – Senior Open(SO) and Junior Girls(JG). The Mahu SO Team had qualified by placing in the top 4 at the Northern Regionals Comp held in June this year. The National competition caps off the UWH Schools Program for the year

Both teams could be said to be in development stages for their respective grades. The SO Team players were the youngest average aged in their grade. At this years Nationals the Senior Open Team placed 6 out of 10 Teams in their grade. A very credible result in a tough competition. Forrest Axford was selected MAhu MVP(Most Valuable Player) and SO Tournament Team Player. And with all of the players returning in 2015, it should bode well for the future.

Read on for the story of the Junior Girls.

All but 2 of the the Mahu JG Squad of 12 were in their very first year of playing underwater hockey competitively.

Head Coach Terry Axford  recruited most of the JG players  from a summer holiday 2013 UWH Intro programme run by HTA( Healing Through Arts and Action) Trust and funded by Harboursport.  Jorgia Bayes a year 12 student and UWH player at Mahu College, had been one of the Youth Coaches employed in the program

 Jorgia  trained the young girls and mentored them through their gruelling first playing season . By August,the team had lost most of their games in a highly competitive Auckland Schools Comp and had placed 7^th out of 8 in the Schools Northern Regionals competition. They had jumped at the offer of a wild card berth into the Nationals Comp  when a rare opportunity became available. They were not expected to be a top 10 team. Prior to the Nats, 2  new players, Sarah Wilson and Rebecca Twhigg,  Juniors who had been playing in the Senior Girls squad, were added to the Rotorua roster.

Those 2 players and an increased training schedule, under the supervision of Jorgia and Terry, added up to an exciting new mix of talent and potential.  Terry Axford then recruited  Carolyn Rohm from Auckland (who had played for South Africa  in UWH)  to co-coach for the Nationals and to bring the finer points of the game to the girls

The weekend progressed with Mahurangi playing stronger with every game. They defeated teams that they had never before beaten ,to eventually advance to the semi-finals. Carolyn and Jorgia paired for a great coaching duo. When Rebecca Twhigg was injured and had to leave the game early in the semi-final, the team played on with heart but eventually lost to Nelson Girls College.  They played for 3^rd /4^th the next morning with Rebecca back in the pool and won the bronze convincingly over Queen Margaret College in Wellington. Nelson went on to take out the gold medal.

Congratulations to Juliana Panui Leth for being selected MVP for Mahu. Rebecca Twhigg was awarded tournament team player honours and Head Coach Terry Axford gave special commendation to Captain Sarah Wilson and Tayla Rogers. Most of the players on the JG squad will still be young enough to play in the Junior division next season. The ones that move into Senior Girls will make for an improved team at that level as well. A great result overall for our Mahurangi UWH Teams and it bodes well for College’s Underwater Hockey program for 2015. The Coach and players would like to take this opportunity to thank our managers/organisers Colin Snedden, Marg Hargreaves, Carolyn Wilson, Judie Twhigg plus all of our Supporters in the 2014 season