I was never really any good at hockey. Cricket was always the main sport growing up. As a normal Kiwi kid I dabbled in a few winter sports, a year of rugby, a couple years of football. Never that interested in either of them, however I was interested in the bribes from Dad for scoring goals. The deal was clear; $1 per goal, $5 for a hattrick, $10 for 5 goals. But be sure if you score 4 to score 5, as 4 goals only counted for $4. And if I ever somehow got to 10 goals in a game, an Xbox game was up for grabs. Saturday morning’s task as a kid was simple. Score goals.
The second year of football we had trials for the first time, there were about 50 odd kids. The coach goes “Who’s going to be the goalkeeper?” No one volunteers. He asks again. No one answers. Being the nice kid who liked to solve the problem, I stuck my hand up on the third time of asking. What a rookie mistake that was. Put in the second lowest ranked team that year, safe to say football was a bit boring. But, the D.A.D bank paid dividends.
The next winter, at 9 years old, my older brother (11) and I both decided we wanted to try something different. A lot of our cricket friends played hockey in the winter, so we decided we’d like to give it a crack. My primary school only had one mixed team, they played 6-aside on a quarter of a field. Fortunately, our coach was the current North Harbour NHL men’s coach (the top team in the region), we were simply very lucky that his daughter was in the team. 10 year old Nathan soon found out that hockey was a lot faster than football, which meant one thing; more goals. The hand-eye from cricket naturally moved to hockey, and I found myself enjoying the sport a lot more. Simply, run around, whack a ball, score some goals, take Dad’s money and have fun.
Two years later, it was suggested to trial for the North Harbour (regional) Under 13 team. At the time they selected an “A’, “B”, and “C” team. Turned up to trials and thought, wow, these guys can really play. Most of the kids picked up a stick at 5 years old, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Somehow, I was put in the “C” team. I was chuffed, a year early, with some good players who were my age. How good! Little did I know some of the players from that team would still my friends today! The team went to a tournament and competed against other regions from New Zealand at the end of the campaign. As a young kid, to meet other hockey players the same age from Christchurch, Waikato, Tauranga, Wellington. It was awesome. No doubt this gave me a taste of the real community feel of hockey, which is a massive strength of the sport.  Â
From there I wanted to invest as much time into hockey in the winter, as I did for cricket in the summer. I just really enjoyed the sport. But this is where it gets interesting. For the next 9 years I trialed and played for my North Harbour age group. Under 13 B, Under 16C, Under 16B, Under 18B, Under 18B. See the trend? By the time I finished school at 18, I had never played for my region in an “A” side. Simply, I was too small as a kid, not fast enough, and not really that great.
Added to this, through my high school years I went to a very sport orientated school. In New Zealand at the end of the school season you play in a nation-wide tournament, which for the hockey boys is called Rankin Cup. All the top high school hockey teams from around NZ gather in one place and play a tournament to find out who is the best school in the country. My school’s 1st XI always competed, had won it once, and finished second 4 years in a row while I was there. My only goal at high school was simple, play in the 1st XI. Surely by year 13 (17 years old) I could get there.
My first year of high school I was put in the 3rd XI with all of the kids my age. We had a sports institute where we took hockey as a subject during school, so 10 of us got to train during school hours rather than sitting at a desk. Some of us had played together in previous regional teams, but with the amount of hockey we had on, we all became good mates pretty quickly.
Our second year of school, the top kids our age moved up to the 2nd  XI, and the rest of us, including myself, stayed in the 3rd XI. The next year, at 15 year old, I got the bump up to the 2nd XI, only one more team to go, and two years to crack it. Surely I could make it happen. That was 2011, which for me was the year I decided to go all out at hockey.
My high school had organised a hockey tour for two teams to go to Singapore, UK and the Netherlands that year. I was obviously in the second team but had no issues as we were about to go worldwide! The highlight of that trip for me was Holland. We got smoked by a Rotterdam age group team in the Rotterdam stadium, I think we were all a bit preoccupied, drooling at the fact we were in an actual hockey stadium, at a club with hockey fields for as far as you could see. What a crazy place. We then played a festival tournament at HDM, with teams from Portugal, Ireland, America, South Africa, and the Netherlands. Watched Bloemendaal men vs Dragons at EHL, where we bumped into Teun De Noijer in the Carpark. Asked the legend for a photo, got it, then lost my camera somewhere along the trip… whoops. After that trip I made one promise to myself, that I would find a way to go back.
No doubt that trip was defining in my hockey life, it opened a little kiwi boys eyes to how awesome hockey could be. It was simply one big party over there.
Back to NZ, back to the 2nd XI and I thought right, I want to get as good as I can. I spent the whole summer at the end of 2011 jumping the fence to get on the school astro turf, just to get some practice in. Trials came around in 2012… back in the 2nd XI. Most of my age group was in the 1st XI by that time. Bit gutted as I thought I was close, but the coach at the time asked me if I had done some training over summer, as he saw a big improvement. I thought to myself I must be on the right track. Said just to keep doing what I’m doing and no doubt I’d get to that prized 1st XI.
To give you an idea of how dominant my school was at the time, for all the schools in our region that year, the 1st XI finished first, and the 2nd XI finished second. I’ll never forget that final. The 2nd XI was up 1-0 at halftime. We unfortunately lost 2-1, but that shows how much depth the school had at the time. 2012 went by, and I scored a lot of goals that year for the 2nd XI. Every game I just tried to play my best.
The 1st XI boys headed off to Rankin cup. We had mock exams at the time, so they all did their exams prior to leaving. 3 days into tournament week and my mum gets a phone call, it’s Mr McCracken, the hockey coach. I’m sitting in my living room wondering why on earth he is calling. Mum tells me that someone has broken their leg and they want to fly me down as a replacement to play Rankin cup. I’m stoked. Mum’s response on the phone… “but what about his exams?” Sorry mum, hockey takes priority. Thankfully Mr McCracken agreed.
The next day I’m on a plane down, the boys have topped their pool and are in a quarter final. So my debut for the team I’ve been gunning for the last few years, is at a knockout stage of the biggest tournament of the year for anyone under 18. Great. I remember one part of the game, I made a lead in the circle, and Dan Edwards (the best player of my year) sent a crash ball straight to me from the 23. Put my stick down and the ball just bobbled over, almost a goal on debut, but not quite. Thankfully the boys won the game. Onto the semi. Another win. Don’t remember the game at all. But tomorrow…. Tomorrow would be Rankin Cup Final. Against Kings College, the best team in Auckland. I don’t remember the game, doubt I played too much, but I remember the words of the captain before the game and I remember the score. “This is probably the highest level of hockey most of us will ever get to play”. We lost 3-1. Second in New Zealand. Being the last player in the side I honestly thought at the time that was the highest level hockey I would get to play, but I didn’t want it to be true and was adamant I would get another shot.
So in year 12 I managed to make my debut, play quarter final, semi final, final of Rankin cup, surely in 2013, my last year of school, I’d get another chance? I remember going to read the team list that year, not seeing your own name, and all of a sudden you see… “2nd XI”. I’ve never been so gutted. Every week that year I went up to the coaches office, I was a right pest really. Constantly asking how to get better, what I need to do, where I can improve. It got to the end of the year and the Rankin cup team was named, I was not there. I remember having a good old cry in Mr McCracken’s office that day, I asked if there was anything more I could have done. The response was “Mr Meredith (the other coach) thinks you’re not a natural goal scorer”. The one thing I could do, score goals, I didn’t do naturally or well enough. I was gutted. Those words I don’t think I will ever forget.
To this day I think I am the only person that has played three games for my school’s first XI, including a Rankin Cup final.
Finishing up at high school, I did the exact same thing I had done the last two years. Jumped the fence and trained. Although now there was no “a” and “b” team, there was only club hockey, and a North Harbour Regional Under 21 team, which at 18 I thought I would never have a chance at making. The one difference that summer was I finally grew. I was no longer the short slow one, I was 187cm and all of a sudden had some speed and some reach. Team list for the under 21s comes out and I’m in the squad of 25 players. From not making a school 1st XI to being in the top 25 players of my region at under 21. To this day I still wonder how.
I hurt my toe that year, and to put it simply was far too scared to train with the calibre of players they had, so phoned the coach and told him I couldn’t train due to injury. The 18 players the coach took that year dominated and won the national tournament, many of them were named in the New Zealand Under 21 side.
I had two more years at Under 21 level. Being 19 now and a lot of the old team having moved on, I thought I had a chance. Trialled well, scored a few goals, and we had a new coach who had moved up from Canterbury, finally a fresh perspective. This was the first time in hockey where I read the team list and my name was there. I’d made it. From under 18Bs and school 2nd XI in 2013, to the regional under 21 team in 2015, (with another year still left at under 21s). We came 3rd in New Zealand that year. I came off the bench and was 7th on the goal scoring ladder with 3 mighty tap ins in 6 games. Sam Lane who is now a Blackstick, top goal scored that year… with 12…
2016 I had another year of under 21s, with mostly the same group of guys and the same coach. We were a good side. We lost the final to a star-studded canterbury side 5-1, featuring S.Lane who again top scored with 14 goals… Yup, he was pretty good back then too.
That year I managed to make the starting line up, so in 3 years had gone from basically not being that great, to being in the top 3 forwards in my region under the age of 21. I clicked much later than most, but I think it’s important for a lot of kids growing up these days to know that people improve at different times. Just because you’re no good one year, doesn’t mean you won’t get anywhere.
Little did I know, two years in the future I would be off to play hockey in the Netherlands…
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