Harriet, from the Dolphin Editorial Team, writes about Mats' summer hockey exchange to New Zealand

October 5th 2023

Harriet, from the Dolphin Editorial Team, writes about Mats' summer hockey exchange to New Zealand...

This year King's Bruton and St Bede's College in New Zealand, have restarted their hockey exchange programme. It has been going on for many years but stopped due to covid. In the spring term last year, Finlay Neale came over King's to play hockey with us and fantastically contributed to the boys 1^st Team hockey. In return, Mats went over to New Zealand for the summer holidays to play hockey and simultaneously experience a new culture. He stayed in Christchurch with Finlay’s family and attended St Bede's College.

The school hockey in New Zealand is very different to what Mats was used to. They play on different turfs, with different hockey balls and at a much quicker pace which took some getting used to. However, Mats adapted very easily and played a part in ‘the best hockey season St Bede's has ever had.’ Similar to King's, the school competes in a regional competition which Mats and his team managed to win for the first time in the school's history. Mats says his most memorable moment of the trip was following this tournament "some school boys came to support on the side line and did a haka for us." To finish an already hugely successful season, the team attended a national hockey tournament held in Wellington. In previous years, the school had never made it into top 16 but this year St Bede's placed 2^nd after a tough loss in the finals.

Mats’ schedule, to his liking, was dominated by hockey. School began at 6.00am with a 1 hour fitness session with the squad, followed by lessons until 2.45pm. The afternoons would be for school hockey or club training. This packed programme has undoubtedly improved Mats’ fitness and hockey in general and is something our teams at King's can definitely learn from.

Apart from hockey, Mats was also given the opportunity to explore New Zealand. He travelled to Queenstown where he rode bikes, went into town and tried one of New Zealand’s most famous burger shops. Mats was also lucky enough to go to Gold Coast, Australia to an athletics meet.

After interviewing Mats, he said that King's hockey is very impressive due to Mr Erikson's coaching and playing at St Bede's has shown him the importance of a water based Astro to increase the pace of the game and 15 minute quarters instead of 30 minutes as it increases the quality and intensity of the game. Mats had the most amazing experience spending this period of time in a new country as now he has friends across the world and "basically a second family which I could go to whenever I want." Mats has plans to return to New Zealand next summer after such a successful exchange.

"I 100% would recommend this experience to anyone. It is a lifetime experience and amazing to see the other side of the world. King's is very lucky to have this programme and to offer the opportunity every year to another pupil."