Three former Wairarapa age group representatives have been named in the Junior Black Sticks (under-21) men's hockey squad after an intensive four-day camp in Auckland two weeks ago.
Nick Finlayson, Ben van Woerkom and Trent Lett are based in Wellington but they had their early hockey education in Wairarapa.
All threewere members of the same Wairarapa College first XI and inaugural members of the Wairarapa Hockey Academy. Along with representing the province with distinction at various age group levels, they also played for Dalefield in the Wellington premier men's competition.
Even though the trio are now based in Wellington and are part of the Wellington High Performance programme under the guidance of assistant Blacks Sticks coach Sean Dancer, they often return to Wairarapa to assist with coaching clinics being run by the local association.
Finlayson and van Woerkom are in their second year of study at Victoria University while Lett, whose brother Dane has also been a Junior Black Stick, is into his second year of an engineering degree at Weltec in Petone.
The three players will join the other 15 in the 2012 Junior Black Sticks at another development camp in Auckland from October 12-14. They will then travel to Malaysia in mid-November to contest the Sultan of Johor Cup tournament where their opposition will come from Australia, Germany, Pakistan, India and Malaysia.
All 18 players in the just-named Junior All Blacks are eligible for next year's team, which will be selected after further trials to participate in the 2013 Junior World Cup in India.
