Trio of school players named in Black Sticks squad

Three current school players and a 2016 Rankin Cup winner have been selected in a Black Sticks hockey squad today.

The three current school players in the 24-strong squad are midfielder Malachi Buschel from King’s High School in Dunedin, Connor Greentree from Kristin School in North Harbour and Harry Lawson from Lindisfarne College in Hawke’s Bay.
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The fourth teenager is Reuben Andrews who won the Rankin Cup with St Paul’s Collegiate last year (pictured above).

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​The purpose of the camp is to assess talented players who stood out this year at the Vantage Under 18s, Vantage Under 21s, Ford National Hockey League and Australian Hockey League tournaments.

Athletes will be put through an extensive six days of hockey, physical, psychological and leadership challenges from 5-10 December.

Performances at the camp in early December in Auckland will help decide final selections of the 2018 National and Development squads.

Not all 2017 National Squad members will take part in the camp with several being moved immediately onto their physical programme following an intense 12 months of international and European club commitments.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to bring players who have come through our talent system into the Vantage Black Sticks environment and see how they stack up,” Smith said.

“You look at the likes of Hayden Phillips, who came into the national programme as a 17-year-old and ended up earning a spot at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

“We have a lot of talented athletes around the country so the sooner we can expose them to top level hockey and everything that comes with that the better.”

The full squad is: