Footscray Hockey Club

FHC’s amazing year of success continued at the annual Wildcats presentation night last Tuesday
where all six Best & Fairest awards were taken out by Footscray players.

U/13 – Sweeney Preston and Georgia Hopkins

U/15 – Oscar Allan and Olivia Colasurdo

U/17 – Weston Howell and Amy Scott

Congratulations!

Travis Brooks has been signed on as Footscray’s Men’s SL1 coach for the next two seasons, here is your chance to meet him in the flesh and see what he’s about and what he has planned for the club over the next two years.

There is a ‘Meet the Coach’ session at FHC on the 24^th of November at 7pm, the session will start with a short jog, so please bring your runners. This session is open to all members regardless of the grade you play in. Interested players are invited to attend who may be contemplating FHC as their club in 2012 – please contact Tom Griffin tom.griffin@buchan.com.au 0424617363.

Congratulations to Georgia Hopkins, Olivia Colasurdo, Kaitlin Grimaldi, Carly James and Stephanie Thompson who were selected in the Victorian Indoor U15′s Team.

Also congratulations to Andrew Scanlon who has been selected as a train on in the U18 Mens Indoor team.

2011 INDOOR TOURNAMENTS

» Australian Open Indoor Championships                                                 December 4-10, Sale, VIC.

» Australian U21 Indoor Championships                                                 December 4-10, Launceston, TAS.

» Australian Under 18 Men’s & Women’s Indoor Championships, January 9-14, 2012, Brisbane, QLD.

» Australian Under 15 Men’s & Women’s Indoor Championships, January 9-14, 2012, Perth, WA.

U15 GIRLS

U18 MEN

Congratulations to Caitlin Duggan, Nicola Hancock, Scott Shaw on their selection in the Victorian Under 21 Indoor Team.

FHC’s SL1 coach Luke Michael is coaching the U21 Women Indoor Team.

The teams will all head to Launceston, Tasmania for the Under 21 National Indoor Championship, a tournament that runs from the 4th -10th December, 2011.

The club would like to wish all our State Representatives all the best for the championship.

U21 Women
Alana Butler (GRN)
Sarah Darling (CAM)
Caitlin Duggan (FHC)
Nicola Hancock (FHC)
Melinda Hodges (MNT)
Melissa Houghton-Sims (GRN)
Taniciah Isorena (ALT)
Melanie  Killian (MNT)
Anna Moore (CAM)
Sophie Sheahan (CAM)
Caitlin Smith (CAM)
Michelle Tuhan (MNT)

Under 21 Men
Zac Ashton (ESS)
Scott Boucher (MNT)
Johan Durst (HAW)
Bastian Land (MON)
Lewis Matthews (WAV)
Hugh McLaughlin (TEM)
James Munro (WAV)
Oliver Preston (WAV)
Jayshaan Randhawa (DON)
Scott Shaw (FHC)
Jake Sherren (TEM)
Thomas Sinclair (HAW)
Bill Brukner (TEM/Train-on)
Tavis Hodges (MNT/Train-on)

Footscray Hockey Club is seeking expressions of interest from appropriately qualified and experienced coaches for the following positions in our Women’s Division in 2012:   Pennant B, Pennant C and Pennant D, Metro grades.  Footscray has gained promotions for our top 4 Women’s teams in 2012, and will field SL1, PB, PC, PD, M2N, M2S, M3N, M3S and M4. All coaches would work under the broad direction of our outstanding State League coach Luke Michael.

We are a big club (41 teams) and getting bigger by the season!

We’re seeking enthusiastic and experienced coaches to help guide this development.

The successful applicant will require a diverse knowledge of technical hockey skills, match strategies and player management. Ability to communicate effectively is crucial.

For more information please contact Nicole Virtuoso 0424 132 715.

Please forward expressions of interest in this position to the Women’s Director: Nicole Virtuoso nicolevirtuoso@gmail.com by Friday 4th November 2011.

The Club’s Board of Management is extremely pleased to announce the re-appointment of Luke Michael as head coach for FHC’s Women’s Division for 2012. Luke’s dedication, enthusiasm and work ethic has been a major factor in FHC gaining promotion to State League 1 in 2012. The top 4 ladies sides gained promotion this year and in 2012 we will field SL1, PB, PC and PD, supported by our Metro teams M2N, M2S, M3N, M3S and M4.

An advertisement has been placed on the HV & FHC websites advertising for Pennant and Metro coaches for 2012.

Please contact Nicole Virtuoso 0424132715 nicolevirtuoso@gmail.com for further information.

The U15 Vic team travelled up to to Homebush, Sydney to compete in the U15 Women’s National Championship at the home of the 2000 Olympics. The first game was against WA. Even though the score reads 1 – 5 down the team had some good opportunities to score but WA had a great Keepers and played good hockey. The second me was against SA who are always a hard team to play, the girls came out victors 3 – 2 in a nervous win. We dominated the first half for only one goal and SA came back in the second half but we answered all their challenges. The third round was delayed due to poor weather as the ground was washed out so the game was moved to our our rest day. The girls then played Tassie and dominated the game to win 5 – 0. The makeup game against ACT on the rest day was not the best performance from our team we lost 0 – 1. The sixth game was against QLD and the complete reversal in performance from the previous game. The girls matched it with QLD and with ten minutes to go we are 1- 1 all. QLD scored a goal with minutes to go and we lost 1 – 2. The second last game was against a tough NSW. Once again we dominated the game but failed to take all of  our scoring chances. We were 1 – 1 all at half time and 2 – 2 all with a minute to go but NSW took advantage of a turnover and scored to win 2 – 3. NSW supporters clapped off the VIC girls.A great end to the tournament round robin -  playing NT next and winning 8 – 0. The Vic girls finished 5th and one win away from third. The ACT game came back to haunt us – the team had the third best goal difference in the comp.  The Footscray girls Olivia Colasurdo and Libby Birch played really well. Olivia came into her own in the last four games with some great hockey and Libby Birch who got hit that many times running out on defensive corners played some great gutsy hockey as well. Both players were excellent ambassadors of FHC. Well done.

Victorian U/13 Boys win the Australian U/13 Hockey Championships

Footscray Hockey Club representative Sweeney Preston was part of the Victorian U/13  Boys that won the Australian U/13 Hockey Championships held at Tweed Border between 1 and 8 October. The team played fantastic hockey over 8 days and went through the tournament undefeated. In their final game they had to beat WA (who were also undefeated until that match) – they won a thrilling match 3-2.

Below photos are of the FHC representative Sweeney Preston with his Gold Medal under the Victorian Flag & the Team.

The FHC Board is very proud to announce that Athens Olympic gold medalist (and Melbourne Commonwealth Games gold medalist) Travis Brooks has signed-on to coach Footscray’s Mens; State League 1 squad for the next two years! Regarded as an outstanding prospect amongst the new breed of young hockey coaches, Travis has worked with Victoria’s National Hockey League team (the Victorian Vikings) for the past three years – under the tutelage of Olympic legend Jay Stacy.

Travis played 143 game for his country, scoring 51 goals including his famous strike in the gold medal game at Athens. At 31 years of age he is a young man who will bring to Footscray a zeal to continue the Club’s promotion of young players whenever possible. Travis is an Analyst/Information Technology Specialist for Deloittes, and is a product of the strong Waverley Hockey Club.

We look forward to welcoming Travis into the FHC family, and are excited that our mens program will continue to build upon the strong base created by Dave Audesho over the past two seasons.

The U17 Girls Western Wildcats are back to back State Champions! Wildcats headed into the finals undefeated and made their way into the much anticipated Grand Final after a comfortable 4 -1 semi-final win over the Red Devils. The Wildcats were lead by captain Caitlin Duggan and supported by 6 more of Footscray’s talented juniors including Mel Morton, Sheridan Corless, Emma O’Connell, Ellen Druce, Nicola Hancock and Amy Scott. The strong Wildcats team had to pull out all stops against a tough Knight’s outfit. The girls managed to prevail with a 2 – 1 victory and were announced State Champions for the second consecutive year. Congratulations to all of you girls!