Two Northerners have been given the honour of captaining their state in next week's under-18 indoor hockey championships.
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Diamondbacks 18-year-old Josh Commins and Tamar-Churinga 17-year-old Lucy Cooper will lead a Northern contingent of four boys and 10 girls during the four-day tournament in Wollongong after being selected by their peers.
The team will fly out on Sunday for a tournament that Hockey Tasmania co-ordinator Colin Pearson expects to be highly competitive.
"With it being a selection year for under-18 squads there's every chance every state will be represented and they'll have full squads so at that level it's a pretty tough competition," Pearson said.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Multiple under-18 state representative Commins said his side was confident of improving on a 2019 campaign which saw Tasmania play some good hockey without winning a game.
"It's a great opportunity to go away with a good team and hopefully put in a good performance with a good bunch of guys," Commins said.
"We've got pretty much a fresh team with a few new players - the same as the girls.
"We've got a really strong core in our leadership group and other players as well so we're looking to utilise them and put in a good effort against the big states."
Cooper, a year 12 student at Launceston College, said her side had already formed a close bond leading into the championships.
"A lot of our team hasn't played for very long so I know as the tournament goes on we'll show improvement and I think we'll be a team to look out for," Cooper said.
"Our strength is at the back - our structure there is pretty good.
"A lot of the people in our team are my good friends and I've seen them improve so to be able to represent them [as captain] is pretty cool."
The two sides will both being their campaigns against New South Wales Blue on Monday.
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