The LPHS 1st XI Boys Hockey Team had another great season this year, all the players gave it their best shot and put a lot of effort into this season, but most of all we had a lot of fun.

This year Dr T and I decided that we would come up with a slightly different starting lineup, losing some valuable players like Jacob Duffy and Ben Major meant we were left with some holes to fill.  We soon found great players with lots of potential, for example we were lucky to have a German exchange student; Jacob. He had amazing talent and a great workrate, we put him in centre half which made us dangerous to the other teams. We also switched a few other players and had Harry and Liam who are both juniors on our left and right wing, both these boys had a wonderful season, they both have great talent and are going to become amazing playing in the future years. 

This year when we played Kavanagh College, we have lost to them every time for many years however this year we managed to have the lead for a while, with the sore of 1-0 at half time, by the end of the game we did lose 4-1 but `being 1 up on Kavanagh' was definitely the highlight of my season.

This year we entered the co-ed tournament again and in my eyes had a very strong team, we had a very good female goalie, who plays for a Senior Women’s club team, this was a huge advantage to our team. We started off the tournament with a few easy wins. For example against Tokomairiro High School 2nd XI. This soon changed and we lost a game against South Otago we needed to win in order to put us in the top half of the table, this meant we finished in the bottom half. I’m still so proud of the everyone who participated in this tournament and I think we played awesome. 

Once again a huge congratulations to all the boys hockey players that played this year, we will be losing Conner, Max, and myself, but I’m sure you’ll quickly find players with great talent to fill those spots. Good luck for next year.

Lastly a massive thanks to Dr Thompson for all that he has done for the team this year, for coaching and managing throughout the year, for putting all his time and effort into us and getting up early every single Thursday morning to run practices at 7.30am  and help us as a team improve.

The 2nd XI also had an outstanding year winning nearly all their games and finishing top of their division. They had a group of talented year 9's and 10’s supported by some first time senior players. I am sure that they will be able to step up and make a real contribution to the 1st’s next year.

Unfortunately, one of the two losses was in the final so they finished runners up but although they were all disappointed they should be really proud of their achievement.