Sport

HOCKEY

Hockey continues to be very strong at Down High, with eight teams regularly assembling on Saturday mornings for fixtures. There are also midweek competitions and matches.  Pupils in all years attend the many training sessions that are arranged after school and a thriving Year 8 practice session is held every Saturday before the matches. All teams have achieved success in recent times with the First XI benefiting from the fact that many of its current Upper 6th members have spent a considerable period of time as part of the senior panel, enabling them to cope with the pressures associated with playing at this standard. Lauren Hackney, an Ulster u-16 representative, captains the squad this year and she along with Amy Millar and Amy Geddes have achieved representative honours in the sport, winning recognition for their skills at South- East level.

Perhaps the most encouraging development in hockey has been the emergence of quality players further down the school, with its promise of future individual and team success. Year 10 student Anisa Dagher is a member of the South-East Development Squad this year and this follows the success of five of our girls in the squad last season. Lucy Geddes in Year 11 has been selected to represent Ulster at Under-16 B level. Such has been her level of performance, Lucy has been elevated to the First XI squad and her wing-trickery promises to be a feature of Down High hockey for the foreseeable future.

The senior hockey tour to Scotland in March 2009 is an opportunity to consolidate the recent fine performances by reinforcing the levels of teamwork and togetherness that are the defining characteristics of the squad. 

Credit is due to the panel of teachers, coaches, parents and former pupils, who coach and umpire during the course of the season. First team coach Miss Heaney is an Ulster U-16 selector and she along with all the coaches put their knowledge and experience of representative hockey to very good use.