Hockey history at Harte with family Irish call-up

A LITTLE bit of hockey history will be made next month by three members of a Cork family.

Eighteen-year-old twin brothers, Conor and David Harte are part on the national senior men’s squad heading on a training camp to South Africa. Older sister Emer (23) will also be there — as part of the national senior women’s squad.

The Hartes’ father Kieran: “Emer, David and Conor have been exceptionally lucky to have met and been guided by so many talented coaches during their hockey careers, beginning with Bandon Grammar School through to their clubs and all the many coaches in the underage provincial and national teams. It shows how successful the coaching system within the IHA has been for young players.”

Senior men’s coach and director of high performance, Dave Passmore added: “All three of the Hartes have excellent natural athletic ability. The broad range of sports they played at a young age has helped to develop this and thankfully they chose hockey as their sport. From my experience of them they are all highly driven and motivated to achieve and the boys have been impressive during their early experiences within the men’s squad.”

David Harte admits that the trip is beyond his wildest dreams.

“Well, if I was to look back over the last 12 months I wouldn’t have thought it possible to better winning the All-Ireland Schools with Bandon Grammar School for the first time and then to do a similar feat with my old club Cork Harlequins when we also won the Irish Senior Cup for the first time.”