AISC U23s Men Recap
As the sun rose on the 30th day of 2021, a group of young men from the City of Sails embarked on their journey to recapture the coveted Under 23 NZISA Hockey Tournament trophy.
It had been a barren few years, with our cousins, from just over the Bombay Hills, holding a tight grip in recent times…but this year, the group of lads, led by the effervescent Dr. Preetesh Parsotam, were hungry to swing the ledger back in favour of Auckland.
A few weeks of preparation, with training sessions mixed in with intense games against the older members of the AISC Prem/Prem Reserve side, culminated as the lads entered North harbour Hockey Stadium at 8:45am ready to take on WISC in the opening fixture.
A stirring team talk pre-game propelled the team to a 2-0 lead at half time. The WISC side huffed and they puffed, but were unable to blow the house down as the boys in green kept a clean sheet and prepared for the Baa-Baa’s in the afternoon with a 2-0 win and a bonus point in the bag.
The team relaxed and watched the impressive women’s Fast5 team whilst enjoying a marvellous spread, put on by Priya Kanji and her team (huge thank you).
Bodies were sore, but rearing to go for a big game in the afternoon.
The sun didn’t let up, and in conditions suited to the opening day of the Boxing Day test at the MCG, the team entered the dressing room ready to do battle against the Baa-Baa’s. Pretz, having coached the Composite team previously, had insider knowledge, and the AISC boys were well equipped to tackle everything that came there way. Impressively going up 2-0 again early on, we had the Baa’Baa’s on the ropes but a sneaky goal from the men in Orange, which was tapped in from a baseline reverse assist, the boys knew they had to dig deep to get to the big dance on Sunday. The Barbarians started to unfortunately fall like flies with injury and the heat being major contributors, but our lads kept running and ran away 4-1 winners. Supporters were elated, as were the lads, as this meant that the final game of the round robin, and the tournament, on the last Sunday morning of January, would be the final script in this NZISA Under 23 tournament tale.
The curtain closed on Saturday at North harbour Hockey Stadium, and both the men’s and women’s team fuelled up at Nando’s Albany before all getting an early night, as at 11:30am the next morning, they would do battle.
Sunday morning…Finals day…THIS IS IT. Winner takes all. Supporters were ready, management were hydrated from a well brewed coffee made by Barry Kanji in the carpark, and the lads were pumped.
AISC went up 1 nil from well-rehearsed Penalty Corner. Preparation is key, as they say, and the PC preparation from the training sessions leading up to the weekend, was in full effect in the early stanza. Good scouting from the coaches the day before as they identified a weakness in the PC defence…well capitalised by the players…a coach’s dream…Jurgen Klopp would have been proud.
Unfortunately, the lads came up against a spirited Puke bunch equipped with a BlackStick and a NHL drag flicker…although, Prashant, leading from the front, made an absolutely stunning save on the line of Puke’s first PC, top edging a hook over the fence for 6. Luckily for the manager, the ball was recovered. Also great work by the AISC Social Media team for capturing this on their Instagram Story.
The game went to half time 1 all and it was all to play for.
But as the clock ticked to 60 minutes…the lads fell just short, going down 3-1. Many positives can be taken from a weekend full of future stars, hold your heads up high, and those returning next year, you can go one step further. Thanks to those that will tick over 23 this year, for all of your services.
Huge congratulations to Prashant Patel (MVP and Captain), Shae Iswar, Kieran Chhiba, Mansimrit Singh and Manraj Gill on making the tournament team. Also thank you to the lads who play their regular season hockey for other Auckland teams…and we look forward to seeing you back at AISC for regular season hockey in the near future.
Best of luck to all for the upcoming season.
Go well and see you at QBT.
