Lindsey Ritchie will be taking her hockey skills onto the big stage when she competes for the Victorian Primary School team at the National Schools Championship in Adelaide in August.By Marc McGowan
CASEY Cannon Lindsey Ritchie will head to Adelaide in August after making the Victorian Primary School team for the National Schools Hockey Championship.
Lindsey, 12, is in just her second season in the sport, which makes her achievement even more notable.
The grade six St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School student has also made the cut for her age group in the Southern Sharks squad for the junior state championships at the State Netball and Hockey Centre from 2 to 8 July.
“Everybody in my family plays hockey. My mum’s been playing all her life and I’ve always watched my mum play,” Lindsey said.
“It’s really social and you meet heaps of people and it’s fun. I do like scoring goals, I get a lot of joy out of that, and you get fit from doing a lot of running.”
The Beaconsfield resident’s father Ken and brothers Jason, 14, and Cameron, 16, complete the family affiliation at the Casey Cannons.
Lindsey’s mother Lorraine is extremely proud of her daughter’s feats in the game.
“It is pretty exciting. I don’t know if anyone in the family has quite done something like this before, so it’s a bit of a surprise, and logistically it has made life a bit more difficult!” she said.
“They had 60 girls at the first trial, then knocked off about half of them, then they went from 30 down to (the final) 14, so it was pretty cut-throat.”
After facing the demanding environment of the trials, which took place in Footscray, Lindsey knows what to expect at the national championships, but will be looking to enjoy herself.
“In the second try-out we had to do three laps of the hockey field, some sprinting, jogging and side-stepping, and then we just did some drills and mini-games,” she said.
“There’ll be a little bit of pressure, but it will be a lot about fun too, because we’re not just there to be under heaps of pressure.”
Stepping onto the playing field for her state will be a memorable experience for Lindsey, but it will take much to top the feeling she had when she found out she had been selected.
“I just stood there and kind of smiled – I was really shocked,” she said.
“My mum’s coming with me, and I think I’ll go pretty well, especially knowing my mum will be watching me, and my dad and brothers are coming up later on to watch me too.”
