College Sport: Westlake skip never says die

First XI captain Mitchell Ottow bounced back from fracturing his neck last year. Photo / Dean Purcell

Campbell Burnes

It's no surprise Westlake hockey captain Mitchell Ottow is a finalist -- alongside teammate Benji Edwards -- for his sport in the ASB YSPOTY awards.

He has led his school to a year of unprecedented success in hockey, but what may surprise is that he did it despite fracturing his neck last year.

The 18-year-old was omnipresent as Westlake reeled off 27 wins from 31 matches, including three draws, this year. They won the North Harbour championship (beating their second XI in the final), the Super City crown (3-2 over King's) and the coveted Rankin Cup for national honours (1-0 over St Andrew's of Christchurch). The midfielder ran his heart out and won MVP for the Rankin tournament.

It would have seemed a distant possibility after a freak accident in social gymnastics last July, when he fractured two vertebrae in his neck after landing awkwardly.

He had to spend 12 weeks in a neck brace. But Ottow kept his mind active and remained part of the Westlake team coding the video analysis.

"I didn't have doubts about coming back, but I had doubts about my recovery time," said Ottow. He didn't have surgery, and reckons his neck causes no issues for him now.

He's also not found the captaincy a burden.

"It's been a good season all round," he says. "It definitely makes it easier to captain when the team is performing, but it's not just me as captain, it's a team game."

Westlake hockey coach Steve McCracken reckons Ottow is being modest. "He's not a loud person, but a leader by example. That broken neck made him tougher and more resilient than ever. Week in, week out, Mitchell was the first one at training. He was the workhorse."

The win over St Andrews rates at the top of Ottow's school hockey highlights.

"A few of us have been working for the last few years just to get that feeling, so I guess it was a relief."

It is an intense event, with seven games in six days. Throw in his club hockey and representative commitments and Ottow can rack up around 80 games a year. No wonder he took three weeks off after the Rankin Cup. Now he is in exams mode and back training eight times a week for hockey.

"It's full-on," he admits. "There's no off-season for me."

Ottow is a North Harbour Under-21 and 18s rep, and he is in the Junior Black Sticks programme. Ottow has a determined eye on playing for the Black Sticks. He certainly has the resilience.

2006 award winner in elite company

Each week from now until the annual ASB YSPOTY awards function on November 28, we will profile past winners as we count down to the 25th annual event which honours the top young college sportspeople in the region.

Rebecca Spence (Rangitoto) 2006

Rebecca Spence was the third and latest supreme winner out of Rangitoto, New Zealand's largest school.

In 2006, she followed Terenzo Bozzone (2002) and Corney Swanepoel (2004) at the ASB YSPOTY awards.

Spence shone brightly in the 2005 junior triathlon ranks, claiming silver at the world championships in Japan and winning the world junior elite crown at the world duathlon champs in hot conditions in Newcastle, Australia, at the start of 2006.

But she pulled off an unexpected and magnificent feat when she pedalled her way to victory in the time trial at the world junior cycling championships in Belgium. The then Year 13 student was the sixth New Zealand cyclist to don the coveted rainbow jersey as a world champion.

A month before that, she successfully defended her world junior duathlon title in Canada.

From 2006, Spence carved out a solid career on the ITU circuit.

The media-shy 27-year-old now lives in Northcote and is the world's 64th-ranked female triathlete.

She placed 43 at September's world championships in Chicago.