NEW CAIRNS HOCKEY GOALKEEPER HAS AN INTERNATIONAL FLAVOUR:
IT HAS been more than a decade since Mili Arrotea was given the chance to start in the outfield, but the newest face in Cairns Hockey still missed the joy of scoring.
The transition from striker to shot-stopper occurred while she was a junior player in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and while she was initially reluctant, the now 28-year-old has never considered leaving the net.
Arrotea comes to Cairns after a two-year stint in Melbourne, and she is already looking forward to playing when the Cairns Hockey season starts.
She won’t just be playing for Brothers, with plans for Arrotea to pass her skills on to the Far North’s junior goalkeepers.
MILI Arrotea is a passionate force for the art of goalkeeping but she was not always at home in the net.
The Argentinian is the latest addition to the Cairns Hockey Association, where she will play for Brothers’ senior women’s team as well as coach the next generation of Far North shot-stoppers.
The Buenos Aires product arrived from a two-year stint in Melbourne last week, ready to take on a new challenge.
“I thought it was time for a new challenge and when I heard they were looking for a new goalkeeper, I was like ‘that might be it’,” Arrotea said.
“I’ll coach juniors, and I’ll be running a goalkeeper program, which is one of the things I like most.”
Arrotea started her field hockey career in the forward line, scoring goals at will.
The absence of her junior team’s normal goalkeeper and her willingness to cover the position sparked a move she learned to love.
“Apparently I saved a lot of goals because the coach said I would start training one day as a field player and the other day as a goalkeeper,” she said. “I hated the position, but after one year, I thought, ‘this is fun’.”
The passion, for goalkeeping and hockey as a whole, has taken Arrotea around the world and given her the opportunity to coach other players.
“I’ve been coaching since I was 18, when I started with my club back home at Argentina,” she said. “It’s something I really love.
“I understand that, being in goals, it’s important to have someone looking after you.
“In a team, sometimes you have to work on tactics that goalkeepers may not be involved in.
“The past few years, I’ve realised more that goalkeeping is not just putting someone there who doesn’t know how to play (outfield).
“It’s more techniques, and you have to work on the mental and physical parts as well. It’s a really big challenge for me as a goalkeeper coach, trying to get everyone to understand how important that position can be for every team.”