Local Hockey Pathway Proving Fruitful with State Selections

Share the Post:

Four Central Coast boys have been named in the New South Wales Under 18’s Hockey teams to compete at the 2019 Under 18’s Australian Hockey Championships in Hobart from April 9 to 17. Kael Webster, Michael Taylor, Joel Tweedie and Ayden Hutchinson have been named in the two teams that NSW will send to the National Championships.

Ayden Hutchinson’s representative journey is of particular relevance to the local Academy Hockey pathway having been named the Athlete of the Year in the 2017/18 UAA Hockey Program run by the Central Coast Academy of Sport with the support of Hockey NSW, Central Coast Hockey and Underwriting Agencies Australia (UAA). A month after representing the CCAS at the ‘Your Local Club’ Academy Games of April 2018, Hutchinson was named in the Hockey NSW 2018-19 Athlete Acceleration Program (AAP). From there, the Gwandalan local has gone from strength to strength resulting in his first State selection.

Brett Johnson, President of Central Coast Hockey and Head Coach of the UAA CCAS Hockey Program said this of the recent NSW U/18’s team announcement: “Ayden has been a great success story for the inaugural CCAS hockey program as he was really focused on improving his hockey over the past twelve months. He was not only elevated to the Hockey NSW AAP squad, but he also won the Central Coast Men’s Division 1 Best & Fairest player award. These are exactly the type of opportunities that we want to keep providing to all our local Hockey players through the Academy program.”

Mark Tipple, CCAS Sport Programs Coordinator said he was delighted with Ayden’s progress on the Hockey pathway: “This result is one of the benefits of starting the Academy Hockey program on the Central Coast in 2017 and it demonstrates the prospects for local athletes willing to work hard to achieve their goals. This is an exciting step for Ayden and for the Hockey pathway on the Central Coast and the CCAS is committed to building on the success of its newest program. Four players making NSW teams in an age group in any sport is a great achievement and is indicative of the fine work being done locally by Central Coast Hockey.”

Share the Post: