13 Aug 2012
Ashton represented Mortlake Public School in the Sydney East Schools Sports Association Junior Boys Hockey team in The NSW PSSA Boys Hockey State Championships from Tuesday 26th June - Thursday 28th June at the Cooke Hockey Centre Bathurst NSW.
It was a fabulously exciting week of hockey. The grounds were covered with misty fog as the players emerged early morning like players in a scene from Lord of the Rings and the temperature they played in was from 1-6 degrees most days!
Ashton played an extremely strong defence position throughout the exciting competitive matches over the three days, dominating the opposition and defending many attempted goals. He was particularly strong in the short corners and gave Sydney Easts Hockey Team a strong defence line to be reckoned with!
One of the most rewarding aspects of the State Championships was the team ethics and sportsmanship that all players demonstrated. Their coach Joy Smith was a wonderful leader and helped the boys unite strongly as a team, a remarkable result when they had in total 6 hours of training pre competition!
Ashton made many new friends in his team and they shared some great experiences, they drew the first two matches 2 all, were defeated in the third match 4 / 1 then demonstrated an amazing feat - through pure team unity and psychological sport will power - Sydney East beat their opponents in a 10 nil match win! That game placed them 1 goal away from the semis and enabled Sydney East Hockey team to finish as the top Sydney Team in the state of NSW!
Catherine W