By JARROD POTTER
SHOWING her pedigree as one of Australia’s brightest hockey stars on the rise, Rachael Guy has surged towards the peak of the sport already on the back of an intense 2016 workload.
Guy, 17, from Berwick is in the midst of a whirlwind year with hockey on her schedule every night of the week.
Hockey Victoria Under 21 and Under 18 sides, Haileybury school hockey, Waverley club hockey, playing and training with the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) and now … selection in the Hockey Australia 2016 National Junior Squad.
After a superb Under 21 national championships – playing up in the higher age group – Guy was picked for the squad which sees her in the reckoning for Junior World Cup selection in Chile in late November.
She doesn’t know what her chances are of making the Australian team – after all she was shocked to even have her name in the mix.
“I found out because my VIS coach had a meeting with my club coaches and she told me then at my club, so I found out before the squad was announced and it was a bit of a shock,” Guy said. “I don’t know if it’s real yet.
‘I haven’t really thought about it; I haven’t had time to think about anything.”
Balancing her hockey and school workloads is difficult at times, but Guy is willing to push herself to set up her hockey future.
Even if it means gruelling 15-hour days, multiple matches and grinding out numerous training sessions just to get her to that point, she wants to take that on to make the grade.
“My coaches keep in the loop to each other and organise that I have a night off club training each week, as I have school as well, but it all works out,” Guy said. “It’s a little bit tiring by the end of the week, but the end of the week is the best part because you get to play.”
For now she wants to impress for Victoria in the Under 18 national championships coming up in Launceston to turn around the Under 21s lacklustre fourth-placed finish earlier this year.
On top of that she craves one last Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) sport championship with her Haileybury hockey team to cap off her schoolgirls career in style.
“Really want us to win an 18s gold medal definitely,” Guy said. “We got second last year and we got hammered in the grand final, but our game to get there was the best game we’ve ever played so this year hopefully we pull together and get the gold.
“We (Haileybury) are doing really well too – we’re winning at least 9-0 every game so far – but it’s fun.
“We’ve won two premierships since I’ve been at Haileybury … so I want to win another one.”
Despite all these hockey accolades and selections piling up on her plate, Guy remains humble about what will become of her sporting journey.
She’ll take up her post in the back-line no matter where she plays – from the peaks of her state representation to her schoolgirls’ side – and just wants to see her sides succeed.
“I just play to win,” Guy said. “I want to win and whatever else happens … happens.”
She wanted to thank Hockey World, her parents, sister Bec and grandparents for their amazing support of her hockey journey.
