PORT Macquarie hockey stars Zara Ferguson, Bayden Smith, Teleah and Eve Walker have all returned from Tasmania.
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The quartet headed across the Bass Strait to compete for NSW at the under-13 national titles in early October, proving the future of the sport in the region is strong.
Teleah Walker and Zara Ferguson emerged with a gold medal performance with their NSW Lions team while Smith’s (second) and Eve Walker’s (fourth) teams also performed strongly.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Hockey Association duo Angela van Zeeland and Danielle Cox played their part as the Lions proved too strong for their opponents.
Van Zeeland and Cox were on the coaching staff.
“(All four of the kids) all played really well and Teleah didn’t concede many goals and Evie scored a couple,” van Zeeland said.
The Walker sisters, along with Smith and Ferguson will all benefit from playing at such a high level in coming years.
“The experience they will have playing at that high level will help them (when they) come back to Port Macquarie,” van Zeeland said.
“They had to deal with being away from home for 10 days, played two games for five (straight) days and there were only two days where they only played one game.”
Managing fatigue, injuries and backing up on consecutive days were three of the challenges the youngsters faced in Hobart.
Smith picked the player of the match honours in two of his teams 10 matches.
“All four of them will go into the NSW under-15 squad for the national titles next year,” van Zeeland said.
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