Naki Nailed Nationals

✎ Edit Post

Inline Hockey again became the focus of a week long event in New Plymouth over the school holidays in September. With club teams attending from many areas of the North Island their participation in itself is a testament to the enthusiasm shown by all ages attending, family support and the extraordinary number of hours committed by volunteers to ensure success.

It is difficult to express enough thanks to those behind the scenes, those that do not seek the glory or accolades for the tireless hours they commit, however thank them we must for their enduring support and commitment.

The venue preparation included, painting, cleaning, setting up of rosters to ensure our visitors were catered for, installation of new LED lighting and installation of PrimoWireless so games could be streamed. Cameras were installed thanks to members of our Masters team and then additional cameras were installed temporarily by IHNZ to provide even more coverage, accessed through YouTube Ravens site. Video can still be viewed here.

The services ran in association with the whole club to help players, families and spectators keep hydrated and fed.

The club are fortunate to have the support of PrimoWireless who have installed hi-speed access for our use along with a “hotspot” for visitors.

New Plymouth has the only club owned two-rink facility in the country resulting in time saved by warming up on the small rink prior to games in all grades. Games ran to time apart from the overtime finals.

The sense of anticipation and atmosphere in the arena was electric at times over the week-long event. Hockey was the “language” filling the stadium with views on performance, hockey styles, who was on which roster, analysing the games, checking the stats and player performances. The talk of historical winners, strategies, expected winners, game upsets and our hockey future while witnessing the camaraderie around the rink was encouraging.

The event is over, winners determined, trophies and medals presented and teams have returned home. For New Plymouth Ravens, our teams presented themselves well. Placed in the top four over all grades, building a good base for further development

Results:

Under 10: 4th Place (Coach Jorja Rosser)
Under 12: 1st Place (Coach Gary Toa)
Under 14: 3rd Place (Coach David Carrington)
Under 16: 4th Place ( Coach Richard Sadler)
Senior Men: 2nd Place (Manager William Isbister)
Senior Women: 4th Place (Coach Gary Toa)
Junior Women: 2nd Place (Coach Bill Murphy)
Masters: 1st Place (Coach Matt Lind)

MV Player Senior: Trent Kemsley
MV Player Under 12: Kate Henry
MV Goalie Senior Women: Elise Sinclair

Click on an image to enlarge: