Today Camphill Hockey Team headed the short distance to Ballymena Academy, in their brand new hockey kits, to play in the NI Girls Regional Hockey Festival. It was a cold and windy day but that did not impact the high spirits of the girls.
Our first game was against Ballykeel, a neighbouring school and Camphill went out strong, determined to start the tournament with a win. Naomi MacCorkell buried the ball to finalise the score 1-0. This was a great way to start the day.
Our second game was against Antrim PS,a tough side, the girls really stepped it up and played fantastically together as a team. Katie Gardiner made some super early runs and battled her way through the Antrim defence to score. Taking our frees early was a tactic that worked in our favour when Amelie Pittam did just that and without the Antrim players even knowing, she had the ball sleakly slotted into their net. Gracie Kenny who is full of grrrrrrr and never gives up also chased the ball before it went off the back line to place it into the net. Unfortunately however this goal was disallowed as it had previously hit one of our teams feet,leaving the final score 2-0.
We knew very little about the next team Irish Society PS from Coleraine and so were caught on the back foot when they came at us with such speed and skill and thus scored an early goal. We then woke up and tried to fight back, yet the heavy rain and wind came on hard and we lost our momentum.
We picked ourselves up again in the next match against Ballycastle CIPS and Katie Gardiner was able to get us a win with a rebound off the keeper.
We needed to win our last game in order to get through and we knew it would be our toughest match against Maine IPS. Camphill girls were outstanding and never gave up even when Maine swept the ball into Camphills net. The girls worked tirelessly and nearly scored twice only to have Maines keeper save them.
We had such a great day, we played as a team and never gave up. We learnt more and more by watching some of the bigger teams. I am very proud of all the girls and rewarded their efforts on such a cold day by going back to the school and making them all large hot chocolates with marshmallows and flakes!!!
Lastly can we say a huge thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came along today to support Camphill Hockey Team...their support definitely spurred on the girls!
Team-Amy Reynolds,Emma Dempsey,Keeley Power,Maddi Bishop,Katie Gardiner,Amelie Pittam, Cadhla Ramsey, Gracie Kenny,Naomi MacCorkell
Mrs Gage
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