North Harbour academy is making a lot of contribution for promoting hockey in New Zealand
Over the past 10 years, New Zealand has been facing several changes regarding its structure, resources and facilities for the present as well as the upcoming players in the sports of field hockey. As a result, field hockey in New Zealand is making rapid
progress at a domestic as well as at an international level.
Recently held Sultan Azlan Shah Men’s Hockey tournament, in Malaysia, clearly depicted the shape of New Zealand hockey, where the Men with Black Sticks finished at the fourth place in the presence of some existing and former World Champions.
In this regard, North Harbour hockey has been making major contribution as it has arranged four artificial surfaces and also has access to nearby turfs in Rangitoto College and Kristin School, in total it has six numbers of playing surfaces which is the
most in any region across the country. So it is providing opportunities to the youngsters to play on international level facilities on a regular basis at a very young age.
Besides this a midget's programme started last week in which young hockey players, between the age of five and eight, will be provided with the opportunities to play at the international level turfs. It looks quite startling that a young kid with age around
five will be playing on the same fields where senior North Harbour teams and Black Sticks Test matches are organised. The present and the past Black Sticks are providing the coaching facilities to this programme and it is all about to give youngsters the exposure
of international hockey at this early stage of life. It is the fourth year of North Harbour Academy with such programmes of junior and senior level.
It is the virtue of these programmes that a number of high quality hockey players, which have been selected in New Zealand Under-21 team, are all from the academy. These are Corey Bennett, James Coughlan, Kat Henry and Rhiannon Dennison, the product of the
academy. Besides that a number of players from the same institutes are on the edge of selection at national level.
There were only a few North Harbour based players from 2000 to 2007, who represented New Zealand, but in the previous three years there were four players, who represented the Black Sticks Men’s national team and it was the same story on the women's side.
There were also four North Harbour based players who represented the Black Sticks Women’s National team during the same period as of the male players.
It looks a blend of various things like facilities, development prominence and number of excellent coaches along with players that are contributing to the hockey at national level.
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