Every young hockey player dreams of one day pulling on the green and gold, of playing for Australia; and Kingscliff High students Gabi Nance and Savannah Fitzpatrick are no different.
But unlike other players their age, the teen-aged duo have a taste of representative honours and it has made them more hungry to one day play for the Hockeyroos at the Olympics.’
The pair, who both played up front during their tour, have just returned from a two and a half week trip through Europe with the Under-17 schoolgirls’ team.
The trip allowed them to see the best young players from some of the world’s other hockey super powers.
“We went to Germany, France, Belgium and Holland,” Savannah Fitzpatrick said of their experience.
“It was very different to what we expected! But it was definitely better than we imagined.”
The girls said their foray into the green and gold had made them even more eager to push forward and one day play for the Open side.
As well as an inspiring trip, the tour has also proven an amazing learning curve for the duo – who were selected following the Under-16 Australian titles last August in Bunbury, WA. At that titles, they played for NSW but at the moment they have swapped blue for maroon and are representing Queensland in the Australian titles in Brisbane.
Both players play weekend hockey in the Tweed Border competition – with Savannah playing for Casuarina and Gabi playing for Kingscliff. While the schools are part of the NSW system, Tweed Border players play all their representative hockey in and for Queensland.
But even though they have swapped States, the pair will see plenty of familiar faces.
“There were a lot of Queensland players in the Australian team,” the duo said.
With so much strength, Queensland is expected to dominate the titles over the next two weeks.
