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A squad comprised solely of South Cantabrians has returned home after making its first foray on to the world fistball stage.
Held late last month in Switzerland, 10 South Canterbury players made up the New Zealand squad that competed against six other nations at the IFA U18 Fistball World Championships.
The side finished their debut tournament in seventh place, going winless, but were widely praised for their bravery, grit and determination.
Coach Sam Kempf said despite the results, the team played well considering the majority of them had only touched a fistball for the first time 10 months ago.
“I’ve had many comments from people over in Austria and Switzerland that they were very surprised at how good the boys were already.
“They were definitely competitive in a few of the games at times, especially against Chile, and almost took a set off one of the constant top four nations in Switzerland. They were up 10-8 but unfortunately couldn’t get over the line, but it was pretty exciting.”
As the captain of men’s national team as well, he said it was awesome to now have an under-18 squad that could feed into that squad in the future.
“It’s what we’ve always been wanting to get. We’ve had a really good core for the last six or so years, but eventually we’re going to get too old.
“It’s good to have a group of players for the future and we’re also in contact with schools around the region to introduce more people to the sport.
“I think we’ve got Waimate, Ashburton, Girls’ High and Roncalli and Boys’ High pretty keen to do it in PE, at lunchtimes and after school. The future of the sport here is looking brighter than it ever has, to be honest.”
Under-18 captain Reuben McKeown said he enjoyed the opportunity to represent New Zealand on the global stage.
“The tournament was great. There were heaps of athletes from all over the world our age and we got to know quite a few of them and play against them over the days, it was just really cool.”
Kempf said the sport was steadily growing in New Zealand.
“We’re hosting the Asia-Pacific Fistball Championships in Prebbleton in November and that’ll have New Zealand, Aussie, India, Japan and Samoa competing. It’ll be the biggest fistball event New Zealand has hosted.
“We’ll also have our social league [in Timaru] starting up in November — the last two times we’ve done five weeks before Christmas and then five in the new year. We’d love to see some more teams take part.
“People need to get into the sport before it gets even bigger, because that pathway is still there at the moment to be able represent your country.”
connor.haley@alliedmedia.co.nz