The Whakatāne men’s and women’s teams are looking to take out their respective grades.

Whakatāne’s women’s side, led by player-coach Lizzie Horlock, line up in this Saturday’s decider against Waikato University, while the men’s team face Otumoetai Chiefs in a battle for first and third places.

Both teams took part in a Baywide competition earlier in the season – featuring teams from Rotorua and Taupō – and came out victorious.

Whakatāne men’s hockey player-coach Cam Ogle said it had been a good season so far.

“It’s been good, we’re undefeated in the Tauranga competition.”

They have played eight matches so far and won them all with an impressive goal differential of plus-23.

They’ve hammered home more than 30 goals and conceded only six in what has been an impressive effort to date.  The team are up against six other teams in the grade, Katikati, Mount Maunganui, Otumoetai, Titans and Olympians 2.

Last year, Whakatāne had two teams, a young guns’ side and then one for their older more experienced players, and although they are back to a single side this year, there’s a good mixture of youth and experience.

In their most recent clash, they won 5-2 against Titans, with a strong all-round display.

“We’ve been playing some pretty good hockey and that’s because we have a good mix of talent, young and old. We have a good mix of age now, some young fit legs and some old wily figures.”

Ogle said it had been good for their younger players to get a taste of what tougher hockey is like as they prepare for tournaments later in the season.

“It’s been a good season. We played in a Baywide competition earlier in the year and won that quite comfortably and joined for the second round of the Tauranga competition.”

He said last year worked well as it kept some players in the sport.

“It has its benefits. It’s still a reasonably good competition. It’s still a decent level where it isn’t going to scare those year 9-10s away. It’s good hard hockey for them.”

The three players from Trident High School and two from Whakatāne High School had been performing well, Ogle said.

Playing in Tauranga means the Whakatāne-based team travels most weekends, but it hasn’t upset their form.

“There hadn’t been a men’s Baywide competition since pre-covid, so it was good to have that up and running again. It featured four teams.”

Ogle said it was good to see the women’s side performing well in the challenging intercity competition.

“The girls qualified first, so they get a home final. Hopefully, they can nail that one and cap off their unbeaten season.”

The women won their quarterfinal against Suburbs Premier Women 14-0, with Caitlin Bridge, Brydie Hopkins, Dani Maunder, Marina Maxwell, Stacey Mexted, Kat O’Callaghan, Alex Ogle and Rachel Sax scoring in the win.

Bridge and Maxwell were the goal scorers in their 2-0 semifinal win over Rotorua Aces.

Saturday’s final begins at 12pm at Stadium Horizon.