Ashburton’s Jacob Gray was called into the Northland under-18 men’s hockey side after an injury to the side’s goalkeeper in Dunedin last week. Photo Erin TaskerOne player’s misfortune turned into Jacob Gray’s good fortune last week.

When the Northland under-18 hockey side’s sole goalkeeper was struck down by injury at the New Zealand Hockey under-18 men’s regional tournament in Dunedin, they put out an SOS which Gray happily answered.

The Ashburton 15-year-old had earlier trialled for the Canterbury side and missed out, but when Northland found themselves in dire straits and started asking around if anyone knew of anyone who could help them out, Canterbury put Gray’s name forward.

Northland’s goalie had a knee injury heading into the tournament – a slight meniscus tear – and there was always a chance he might not make it through the whole tournament, so Gray was put on standby a couple of days before it began.

A couple of games in the goalie’s injury became worse and he could no longer continue.

Goalkeeper was a specialist position – you couldn’t just put someone from the field in the goal, particularly at that level where you were competing as one of the top eight under-18 sides in the country.

So last Wednesday Gray headed south to join the Northland team.

Coming in to a team mid-tournament wasn’t easy, particularly when it was a team from the other end of the country where Gray knew no one.

“Especially when you’re goalkeeper, because your job is to talk and tell everyone what’s happening, and you don’t know everyone’s name so you can’t tell them,” Gray said.

“But by the last game I was pretty good with names.”

Ironically, Gray’s first outing for Northland was against Canterbury and they lost 5-0, and in his second they lost 4-1 to Southern, but on the final day they turned that result around and beat Southern 2-1.

Being a goalkeeper could be a stressful job at times – you were literally the last line of defence – but Gray had loved it ever since he first offered to stand in goal when a young team his mum was coaching was short of a player when he was only about six years old.

Now, he played in goal three times a week, for the Wakanui senior men’s team on a Saturday, for Ashburton College on a Friday night in Christchurch, and for his first-grade side on a Sunday.

But he did play in the field once a week, for his age group team on a Monday night.

With umpiring, training and practices in between times, the hockey turf was pretty much Gray’s second home in the winter and would continue to be for some time yet.

“I’d like to play at a high level, but if that fails I’ve always got umpiring.

“There’s always a game to umpire,” Gray said.

This weekend he’d be back in action at the Ashburton hockey turf for his Wakanui side which was top of the table in the Mid/South Canterbury senior men’s competition with only three games to go until the finals.

But they had second placed Temuka to play on Saturday – a team which featured former Black Stick Hayden Shaw, who was notorious for his drag flick which could challenge even the best of goalkeepers.

But facing a player like that would help Gray to grow his own game and become a better player in the future.

At 15, Gray still had two more years of under-18 hockey ahead of him and was hopeful he’d be back at the national tournament again, although hopefully in the more familiar red and black of Canterbury next time.

By Erin Tasker© The Ashburton Guardian - 17 July 2018