Mighty HIBS football firsts do it again
History does repeat, college sporting history anyways.
The Hutt International Boys’ School football firsts showed this on Wednesday evening when they carved out more college sporting kudos in winning Wellington’s Youth Championship Premier competition for a second consecutive year.
The local heroes repeated their history-making of a year ago, again beating their more their fancied Wellington College opposition in a mid-week final under lights before a big and excited crowd at Memorial Park, Petone.
Unlike a year ago where the HIBS’ success came with a rousing 3-1 victory] the 2016 final was decided with a single goal, courtesy of a quality Blake Sinden strike from outside the the penalty box 15 minutes into the second half.
The HIBS players’ determined final effort was befitting a side which had to make a late charge in their season to reach the all important top two.
The team, again coached by Brendan McIntyre, conjured up a several game unbeaten run including an away match against Scots where two goals in the very last minutes delivered an allimportant draw.
HIBS captain Simon Belcher had a top season. He finished a joint winner of the ’’Golden Boot’’ for top scorer in the youth championship with 10 goals.
On their final night the HIBS’ squad repeated the unusual preparation they first used 12 months earlier.
The team only arrived at Mem- orial Park 10 minutes before the scheduled 7.30pm kick-off, preferring to base themselves at their college home for their meal, tactical preparation, warm ups and kit out.
This week the HIBS side is away for a college sports tournament week, playing in the Division One competition at Tau- ranga.
Meanwhile, there was disappointment for the Upper Hutt City women’s side who played a semifinal in the national knock-out cup in Auckland at the weekend.
They were beaten 1-0 by Glenfield with the decider coming at three-quarter time.
That left Upper Hutt assistant coach Lisa Gibson with mixed emotions.
‘‘We’re super proud of the fact we did so well, but we possibly could have nicked it and that would have been even better.
‘‘We had a couple of half chances, and I think all it came down to was a little bit of composure in front of goal.’’
Winning team
The team: Simon Belcher, Daniel Evans, Donal Gahan, Mathew Springgay, AndrewHeaps, Sam Patterson, Ethan Findley, Blake Sinden, Jesse Tashkoff, Nicholas McFadyen, BenjaminWaine, Jack Wylie, Jaiden Moir, Jack Mawdesley, Hamish Burrows, Euan McDowall and Jakob Moore.