A group of teenagers from Nelson is about to swim onto one of the biggest stages their sport has to offer, and most New Zealanders will never have watched a minute of it. They play underwater hockey, and later this month they will represent New Zealand at the world championships in Turkey.
Six players from the top of the South Island have been named in national age group squads for the seventh CMAS World Championship Underwater Hockey Age Group, which runs from 16 to 26 July at the Gebze Olympic Swimming Pool near the Turkish city of Kocaeli. Nelson punches well above its weight in the sport, and the size of this contingent shows why the region is treated as a nursery for the game in New Zealand.
Lucy Jennings and Georgia Harris, both 16, have been selected in the women’s under 19 team, with Grace van Orden named as a non travelling reserve. In the men’s under 19 side, Toby Dukes has been handed the captaincy alongside teammate Isaac Milner, with Jasper Sneddon as a non travelling reserve. Three older Nelson players, Harrison Brosnan, Chantal Brosnan and Scarlett Reeves, have made the under 24 grade.
For anyone who has never seen it, underwater hockey looks a little like a puzzle solved on the floor of a pool. Two teams push a weighted puck along the bottom using short sticks, holding their breath as they dive down, surfacing for air, then diving again. Nobody can stay under for long, and that is exactly why the players talk about it as a team game before anything else.
“It’s such a team sport, every single training, every single tournament, you’re all there together for the same goal, I love that team vibe and I also just love being in the water, just swimming,” Jennings told RNZ.
Harris said the constant movement is a big part of the appeal. “I love how dynamic it is, it’s always changing and it’s quite fast paced and I love the community behind it,” she said. With the championships now close, she said the mood in the group had shifted. “There is a bit of nerves, but I reckon it’s more excitement now.”
Getting to Turkey has taken months of early mornings and long sessions in the pool. Dukes said the build up began late last year and only grew heavier as selection tightened. “The very first selection camp was in November last year so training at least five sets a week from then and it went from five to seven, seven to eight,” he told RNZ.
Behind the young players is a coaching group with deep roots in the sport. The under 19 men are guided by Warwick King, who has been coaching for about 50 years and has already delivered New Zealand teams to the top of the world. Under his watch the under 19 men won world titles in 2015, 2019 and 2024, a record that puts real weight on the shirts the current squad will wear. He is supported by Alex Coombes-King, a former national representative, while Rebecca Brosnan, another former elite player, manages the under 19 women.
King describes the game as a three dimensional contest that asks players to read the space above, beside and below them all at once. “You have players above you, beside you, below you. Unless you’re right on the bottom, you can have players coming at you from every direction,” he said.
The strength in Nelson is not an accident. The sport took hold in the region partly because scuba divers went looking for something to do through the winter, and it has since built a pipeline through local schools. Nelson College for Girls has won the schools nationals two years running and sits near the top of the national rankings, and Nelson College holds a similar standing for the boys. Volunteer coaches and managers, many of them former players themselves, keep the clubs running week after week.
New Zealand has long been one of the powers of world underwater hockey, and this year’s age group teams will be expected to push for medals against strong nations including Australia, South Africa, Colombia, France and hosts Turkey. For the Nelson teenagers, though, the first goal is a simpler one. It is to represent their town and their country well, and to enjoy every dive along the way.
What do you think of these young athletes flying the flag for New Zealand in a sport most of us never see? Have you ever given underwater hockey a go? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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