Following completion of this year's domestic tournaments, the 2016/17 Junior Black Sticks squads have been selected and Central Districts have 10 under 18s represented in this year's squads.
The squad is the first rung of the ladder for players in high performance programmes, providing them with an opportunity to play a higher level of competition with young athletes of similar skill levels.
Selectors take to several major hockey events to choose the squad, including the Regional Under 18 Hockey Tournament and the secondary schools tournament. The Central Districts Under 18 Men came fourth in this year's regional competition and Central Districts Under 18 Woman won silver, the highest ranking for the team so far.
Central Hockey community manager Kathy Norman is proud of Central Districts for producing such high quality players and says there are several keys to their success.
"Firstly, there is so much support across all the central districts nine associations, all pushing to get their best players into the central districts team."