City has great hockey legacy

EACH weekend The Chronicle sport team looks at pressing issues on the Saturday Soapbox.

Q: The state’s best young hockey players will be in action in Toowoomba this weekend at the Queensland Under 18 Men’s Championship. Toowoomba is renowned as a place that produces great hockey players. How is it that Toowoomba can produce such great hockey players?

Anton Rose: IT CERTAINLY cannot be a fluke.

While there has been a drought of Hockeyroos and Kookaburras since the city’s golden era that produced the likes of Michael Brennan, the sheer number of juniors representing Queensland this year is evident of the quality of players in Toowoomba.

It won’t be too long before we see them in green and gold again.

Ben Drewe: YOU can’t put it down to one thing.

The facilities at Clyde Park are great and would be the envy of any regional centre.

There also seems to be great coaches which is important in bringing on young talent.

You also see plenty of promising players in their early teens playing a grade and that exposure to open competition would expedite their progress.

What ever the Toowoomba Hockey Association and its clubs are doing is working.

Good luck to the Toowoomba teams this weekend at the state championship.

Glen McCullough: I AGREE with my colleagues.

It hasn’t happened by fluke and there are many contributing factors.

Culture and a strong foundation are prominent.

Regions often nurture sporting cultures unique to their town and people.

There is no better example than hockey in Toowoomba.

Our immediate thoughts of the city’s hockey success goes back to our strong Olympic representations of the past.

But the growth of that era was the results of seeds planted by those before them.

Smart administration and a good image I believe are other contributing factors to the sport’s appeal in our city.

Q: What is your favourite sporting movie?

Ben Drewe: THIS could quite possibly be the toughest question we have tackled on the Soapbox.

It is hard to narrow down just one, but I have to say Cool Runnings is one that never disappoints.

It has humour, drama and a classic underdog story.

Best of all, it is based on a true story highlighting just how engaging some real-life sporting stories can be.

I also love a good baseball film.

Glen McCullough: I’D HAVE to say I haven’t seen too many good ones.

Biographical movies are usually the biggest disappointment.

They are usually at bit too fluffy for mine.

I don’t mind a good racing flick though and I would have Seabiscuit at the top of that list largely because I wasn’t completely aware of his great story.

Anton Rose: YOU can’t knock the Ben Stiller classic Dodgeball.

While I am sure there will be people who question whether dodgeball is even a sport I am willing to let it slide purely because of the Oscar-worthy performance from Vince Vaughan.

A close second would have to be Space Jam, Michael Jordan teamed up with Bugs Bunny and then returned to the Chicago Bulls. Timeless.