Froeling’s chance to impress against Dutch

KATIE FROELING has an early chance to make herself an adopted Irish hero as she lines out in green against her native Holland at the Volvo EuroHockey U18 Championships in Utrecht today (3.05pm Irish time).

The Dutch tyro is a native of The Hague but qualifies for Ireland via her Carlow-born mother. Froeling fulfilled a selection criteria of travelling to every Irish training session, and the powerful drag-flicker has already proven her worth by notching four goals in two heavy friendly wins over France last week.

She is one of multiple threats in a side littered with experience that hopes to keep the feel-good factor going in Irish hockey, following encouraging performances from the senior teams this summer.

The side is skippered by Catholic Institute starlet Rebecca Barry who hopes to sign off on her underage career in style before she takes up a hockey scholarship with the University of Richmond in Virginia, a lucrative opportunity, but one which may stifle her senior international ambitions.

“I know by going to America I am taking myself out of the Irish hockey circle and realistically, I could be out of the picture for a number of years,” the 17-year-old Limerick native admitted.

“It goes without saying that the dream is to play for the seniors, but at the same time I believe [going to America] will help me in maybe achieving this one day.”

For now, Ireland’s focus is on finishing in the top two of their pool to eke out a semi-final spot, but first they must negotiate The Netherlands, Scotland and Belgium on consecutive days.

The Ireland U18 boys also begin their campaign with a very tough assignment against the Dutch, and with Germany and Russia also in their pool, coach Turloch Ó Siocháin is setting his sights a little lower.

“We have a talented group of young athletes who have prepared well,” he said.

“We enter the tournament as seventh seeds and will be looking to improve on this confirm a top six ranking in European U18 hockey.”

The boys’ side has seen a lot of turnover since winning the U18 Four Nations last summer and the squad features no Munster players this time around, but can nonetheless boast a full senior international incaptain Ian Sloan of Cookstown.