BOISHAAIER 2015

HOCKEY

The 2015 season started off with the new appointment of Mr Craig West, who joined PBHS as the new Head of Coaching for hockey. The first and most important item on the agenda was to get the trials done and players put into various teams for the coaches to begin their pre-season training. There was a great response to trials and there was a total of 3 X U14, 5 X U16 and 5 X U18 teams selected for the season. The 1st team was invited to attend the Founders Tournament at Parktown Boys’ High where they would play against a few top hockey schools from around the country. Finishing with two wins and four losses, the team was able to come back to Cape Town with some valuable insight into focus areas which needed to be addressed prior to their season. The U16A side attended the Rondebosch festival and finished with three wins, two losses and a draw. April was an extremely disruptive month for hockey due to the Boland trials that were scheduled throughout the month. Players were selected to represent PBHS at the trials and they did the school proud. We had player representation in all of the provincial age group teams. Congratulations to Rowan McLachlan who was selected as the coach for the U14A

Regional team as well as to Craig West who was appointed as the WP U21 assistant coach. Cindy McFarlane was also selected to represent the WP Masters Ladies at their provincial tournament. The big derby against Grey was upon us in no time and soon the teams were on the bus for the trip up to Bloemfontein. It was a tough round of fixtures against one of the best hockey schools in South Africa, with Grey winning nine of the eleven games that took place. Well done to our U14A and U14C teams who both managed to draw their matches. The First team can be proud of their performance as well which was a nail-biting affair from start to finish. The team played with great structure, managing to keep a lot of the possession throughout the match and in doing so created numerous goal scoring opportunities. With 10 minutes to go the 1st team got their second wind and piled the pressure on Grey. Paarl Boys’ High camped in Grey’s half of the field looking for another goal, but were unable to find the back of the net and the game finished 2 – 3. The third term started off with the 1st team boys taking part in the annual Brothers International Hockey Festival. Although results did not all go their way, they finished with four losses, two draws and a win. During this festival, the other teams all played their

fixture against SACS where we managed to get a mixed bag of results, but showed that Boys’ High hockey is on the up with many of our B and C teams managing to win their fixture. Next up was the main focus of the hockey season, the preparation and build-up towards the 100th Interschools fixture. The U14A and U16B teams both comfortably won their fixture 5 – 0. The U16A team won 1 – 0, Seccies drew 0 – 0 and the only fixture left was the main event for hockey, the 1st team match. PBHS played a well-structured and disciplined game from the second the whistle blew to start the match. After scoring an early goal, they ensure that they did not drop their high tempo, putting Gim under constant pressure throughout the match. When the final whistle was blown, HJS had managed to put an incredible 5 goals away, winning the 100th Interschools fixture 5 – 1. A huge thank you must be said to all of the hockey coaches and managers who were involved with the various teams over the season as well as to all of the staff and pupils at PBHS who supported the hockey teams throughout the season. Hockey at PBHS continues to grow from strength to strength and with all of the hard work being put in by the coaches and players, 2016 promises to be a successful year for hockey.

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