{"id":93450,"date":"2025-10-22T03:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93450\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T03:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:22:07","slug":"gisborne-students-ollie-egan-and-francois-louw-named-in-new-zealand-under-18-mens-indoor-hockey-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93450\/","title":{"rendered":"Gisborne students Ollie Egan and Francois Louw named in New Zealand Under-18 men\u2019s indoor hockey team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gisborne Boys\u2019 High coach Wade Manson said he was \u201cabsolutely stoked\u201d for both players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool for them to be able to get into the top representative level,\u201d Manson said.<\/p>\n

\"GisborneGisborne Boys’ High School First XI goalie Francois Louw and his defensive line in a secondary school tournament game. Louw has made the New Zealand Under-18 men’s team to compete in an indoor hockey competition in his homeland of South Africa in December. Photo \/ Bonnie Easterbrook<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on where we are as a region, we don\u2019t get many opportunities like this for players from here, so it\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we don\u2019t have indoor hockey played here, it is a clear pathway to higher representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manson said the game used to be played many years ago in the Army Hall on Fitzherbert St.<\/p>\n

Indoor hockey is a variant on the traditional outdoor game and is mainly played during the off-season when conditions get too hot for outdoor play.<\/p>\n

It differs from outdoor hockey in several ways.<\/p>\n

There are fewer players \u2013 six to a team, including the goalkeeper. The field of play is much smaller, a hard surface in a sports hall or similar venue, with boards along the sidelines that prevent the ball from going out of play at the side.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast, intense and packed with skill\u201d is how it has been described by the international hockey federation.<\/p>\n

Egan, in his last year at GBHS, said it was \u201cwonderful\u201d to get the opportunity to be seen playing at a higher level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had only played indoor hockey once before the New Zealand trials held in Taup\u014d earlier this month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s finally a chance to play the game at a different level to what we play locally. It\u2019s real cool to take my game to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louw, also in his final year at GBHS, was likewise rapt to get the chance to compete at the higher level.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s always been my dream to play at that level. To put yourself out there at this level, well, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teenagers were looking forward to it and said they would be taking the opportunity \u201cwith both hands\u201d.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand teams \u2013 U18 men and women and open men and women \u2013 will be away for about 10 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gisborne Boys\u2019 High coach Wade Manson said he was \u201cabsolutely stoked\u201d for both players. \u201cIt\u2019s cool for them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190,95,1558,1848,7500,69616,1888,69617,12506,305,2959,43779,78,69620,69618,20562,10136,117,111,43,139,69,69615,10702,4062,1240,3767,7187,16559,69619,80],"class_list":["post-93450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-africa","tag-and","tag-been","tag-boys","tag-december","tag-egan","tag-first","tag-francois","tag-gisborne","tag-have","tag-high","tag-hockey","tag-in","tag-indoor","tag-louw","tag-mens","tag-named","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ollie","tag-players","tag-school","tag-south","tag-students","tag-team","tag-tournament","tag-under18","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}