Canterbury trio set for Black Sticks debuts
All going well, Canterbury will be able to boast three more capped Black Sticks by the end of next week.
Black Sticks women’s coach Mark Hager last month named 12 uncapped players in his 22-strong squad for their five-match series against Malaysia in Taranaki.
Canterbury’s Catherine Tinning, Phoebe Steele and Jessie Anderson made the cut and all are expected to debut during the series, which runs between December 12-18.
Tinning, 18, who is in her final year at Villa Maria College, is the youngest player in the squad, while Steele and Tinning are both 21.
The trio join fellow Canterbury players Rachel McCann (32 caps) and Jenny Storey (12 caps) in the team.
Despite all harbouring the ambition to crack the Black Sticks, all three admitted they didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
Anderson, one of two teenagers in the squad, was particularly caught off guard by the call up.
‘‘We were away on camp and a few girls came up to me and said ‘congratulations’. I had no idea what they were talking about,’’ she said.
‘‘It was pretty cool hearing that news.’’
Anderson, who plays club hockey with Tinning for Christchurch club Harewood, trained with the team in Auckland for the first time last Friday.
‘‘I was a bit intimidated getting out of the car,’’ she said. ‘‘I was like to mum, ‘Oh, I’m really nervous to get out and train,’.
‘‘But it was actually really good and all the girls were so lovely.’’
It’s been a memorable year for Anderson, who a few months ago scored the match-winning goal in golden goal extra time to power Villa Maria to their first national secondary schools title.
Anderson, who plans to study a bachelor of science at Lincoln University or the University of Canterbury next year, said putting on the black jersey and debuting for her country would mean a lot to her.
The fact she could do it alongside fellow Canterbury players Steele and Tinning would make it even more special.
Steele and Tinning recently returned from the junior world championships in Chile, where the junior Black Sticks finished 13th.
While Tinning said her call up was a ‘‘bit of a shock’’, she had hoped Hager would look to the future after the Rio Olympics.
‘‘I guess after the Olympics a few of us girls knew there would definitely be a clear out in players and we were hoping that they would give younger players a bit of a go,’’ she said.
‘‘But I wasn’t expecting it. I’m really, really happy they’ve giving younger players a bit of an opportunity.’’
Steele, who is also a New Zealand touch representative, moved to Auckland at the start of this year for hockey and was treating being named in the squad as a reward.
‘‘It’s a cool reward for that because it obviously wasn’t easy,’’ she said.
After experiencing a tough campaign with the junior team in Chile, Steele is expecting things to ramp up even more against Malaysia.
‘‘You read about everyone who debuts and they just say it’s a whole other level,’’ she said.