Truro High Year 10 pupil Amy Shaw and Year 11 pupil Lucy Coombs have been selected to train in the Under 17 and U18 Junior Regional Performance Centre for hockey.
The selection process has been long and rigorous lasting over several months. Against over 100 of the county’s top female players, the girls were picked to attend the Regional tournament in Bristol. Here national assessors and coaches selected the top players from the entire South West to represent their region at the Performance Centre. Only 30 girls were selected for each age group for the training in Exeter.
Lucy said: “It’s a real honour to have been picked as there were some strong players who didn’t make it through. It’s going to be a lot of hard work but I can’t wait to get on the pitch and start playing.”
Lucy has been training with Cornwall County every week since September with matches every Saturday whilst Amy was fast-tracked to training in January due to her previous success in the process. The girls also play for their local clubs which are respectively Truro and Falmouth.
To facilitate this rigorous schedule, the girls travel around 100 miles and spend up to 12 hours on the pitch every week. Real team players, they also participate in school fixtures and regularly support the teaching staff with the Prep School hockey club alongside their hockey commitments.
They will now get to train at state-of-the-art facilities on the Exeter University campus with six intensive days of hockey practice spread out from June to September as part of the Exeter Leopards team. They will take part in practical ‘on pitch’ training, alongside classroom based theory lessons.
Amy said: “I’m so proud to have made it to this stage of the process for the 2nd year running. It’s definitely been hard with a lot of training and I really want to show that I’ve improved since last year. Every year that I try out I make it one stage further. I’m hoping this year with lots of hard work that the pattern will continue and I will be chosen to play at a national level.”
Last year, Amy reached the final stage of the selection process for the U16 England Hockey team.
Catie Shaw, Amy’s mum said: “I am absolutely thrilled that Amy has been selected to attend the Junior Regional Performance training sessions. She has been supported every step of the way by the teaching staff at the High School and at Falmouth Hockey Club. She is now reaping the rewards of all her hard work. I am one proud mum!”
If the girls impress at the training camp, they have the opportunity to be selected for the Tier 1 national and regional tournaments in September.
