Ben Fitzpatrick
We have had a huge month of representative hockey for many of our Gympie Hockey stars travelling all over the state during May.
It all started in Brisbane at the Hockey Queensland Championships, where we had Majella Barnes and Harrison Parker selected in QLD Country Senior teams for the second straight year. They will be heading to New South Wales in August to attempt to defend their National Titles.
On the same weekend, also in Brisbane, the QLD Masters Mens Titles were be playing at Chermside. The Gympie team performed well with the highlight being a 3-3 draw with the eventual champions Brisbane one. At the conclusion of the tournament, the following players were selected in State Teams to participate at the National Titles in Perth during September and October: Errol Deen – 065 No.2 Team, Col Wildman – 065 No.2 Team,
Bryan Blacka 0 065 No.2 Shadow, Keith Robertson – 070 Team, John Daly – 045 No.1 Team, Brad Morgan – 045 No.1 Team, Dean McEwan – 045 No.2 Team, Jason Grady – 045 No.2 Team, Craig Whittaker – 050 No.2 Team and Tony McKean – 055 No.2 Team.
The next two weekends we had our Gympie Under 18 Boys and Girls Teams travel to Townsville and Cairns respectively, to compete in the Under 18 State Titles. Connor Innis was selected in the QLD No.2
The boys team that will travel to Hobart in July for National Championships and Romy Whittaker will be hoping for a call up after being selected as a shadow player for the girls teams.
Back down to Brisbane’s State Hockey Centre the following week for the State 13-19 Schoolboys Titles. We had three Gympie players representing the Wide Bay Schools Team which finished with a silver medal
after narrowly going down to Darling Downs in the final. Connor Innis was selected in the QLD Under 19 Merit Team and Cody Fitzpatrick named a shadow for the QLD Under 16 Team to compete at Nationals
in Adelaide during August.
Then to finish the month off, it was the Schoolgirls turn for State Titles also in Brisbane. The Wide Bay girls finished up in 4th place and Romy Whittaker was selected in the Under 19 Queensland Merit Team.
An amazing achievement for our regional centre to have so many QLD Hockey representatives. The rep season doesn’t finish there either, with our two Gympie Masters Women’s teams travelling to chilly Toowoomba this weekend, followed by the 10-12 Wide Bay Schoolboys and Girls teams travelling to Rockhampton later in the month including five Gympie representatives and then our Gympie Under 13 Boys and Girls teams are busily preparing for their State Titles at the start of July in Cairns and the Sunshine Coast.