Northsports women’s roller hockey side have been crowned the best in the country after a dominant Champions Cup display.
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The Glen Innes club the only of its kind in NSW and the Northsports players took up the entirety of the state team in their various divisions.
The ladies team, which featured a large portion of the club’s junior players, surged through the competition to take on Queensland in the final.
They finished convincing 8-2 winners to take out the gold medal.
NSW also finished with bronze medals in their three junior divisions – under 11s, 14s and 17s.
Juniors’ coach Daniel Heagney lauded the efforts of the ladies’ team and said the club was “very proud” to bring home four medals.
“It is a really big achievement for the ladies to take out the gold,” he said.
“We are still a developing state in terms of roller hockey.
“To be just our club team as the state team is a really big achievement.”
Making it even more impressive was the fact NSW had just one club to select a side from.
“It makes it harder really because the other states have a wider range of talent available,” Heagney said.
“We have to play kids in a couple of divisions to make up numbers to put teams in.
“It is a very challenging competition for us.”
Preparation in the lead up to the tournament was intense.
“We put in a heap of effort,” Heagney said.
“We have all worked really hard.
“One thing we really had to work on from the last comp was our fitness, especially coming up to play in Brisbane where the temperature is substantially warmer than Glen Innes.
“It is a lot of hard work.
“We had kids who were playing three or four games a day so we had to put a lot of emphasis on ensuring our bodies would be able to stand up to that kind of punishment.
“We are all a bit sore and sorry, battered and bruised now.”
Maintaining fitness can be a tough ask for the Northsports players with long stretches of time in between roller hockey competitions.
Heagney said they will spend this week recovering before getting back into training with the Australia Day Cup in their sights.
“To hold our top spot, our ladies are going to the Australia Day Cup in Melbourne,” he said.
“Next year we are trying to send the club to New Zealand to compete in the national championships over there so that is going to be a bit of a goal for us working forward.
“We are going to have a week off while the school holidays finish.”