Hockey
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AFTER a stellar performance at the School Sport Australia 16 Years and Under Hockey Championship in August, Boyup Brook’s Angela Chilwell has been named in the Australian Schoolgirls hockey team to travel to South Africa in June 2016.
The not-yet-16 year old scored two goals in the week long championship in which Western Australia finished fourth.
Playing at the Perth Hockey Stadium, Chilwell said, “It was awesome to play in front of a home crowd. It made the game a lot easier feeding off the crowd's encouragement.”
In preparation for the Championship, Chilwell focused on her personal fitness, nutrition requirements and skills, along with training every Sunday morning and Wednesday night and playing in occasional scratch matches.
Currently a Year 10 boarder at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, balancing her school work, club hockey, state hockey and other commitments (including a school rowing team) was a challenge.
“I made sure whenever I had spare time I would get work done to keep on top,” she said.
This meant late nights, early mornings and even turning down social outings with her boarding mates to be at her best for trials and scratch matches - a real tribute to her dedication.
But it was all worth it.
“It was one of the most enjoyable hockey tournaments, I loved every second of it,” Chilwell said.
Chilwell joins two of her Western Australian teammates, Isabella Suleski and Renee Rockliffe in the eighteen-girl national team. When her name was announced, the teenager squealed with her teammates and found herself holding back tears of happiness.
Mum, Ros Chilwell was also quite emotional as she witnessed the announcement, but overwhelmed with absolute pride and excitement, especially as WA had not done as well in the event as they would have liked.
“It was also a great sense of pride to our community, as a lot of Angela's attributes have evolved from wonderful role models coming through the Boyup Junior and Women's teams, and she will always be very proud of that,” she said.
As the 2015 recipient of the Shire of Boyup Brook’s Young Achiever of the Year, Chilwell continues to demonstrate the qualities which earned her this title and with her whole-hearted commitment and work ethic, she is destined to achieve great results.