Bury St Edmunds' girls U14 hockey team has been crowned national champions after beating one of the best hockey clubs in the country.
The U14 team beat Surbiton 4-0 in the final of the England Hockey Tier 2 Cup in Cambridge on April 3.
A hat-trick from Evie Younger, a goal from Esther Sheldon and some great saves from goalkeeper Georgia Scarff helped the team to victory over the south west London club.
Alex Bibby, the girls U14 head coach and head of the junior section at the club, said: "From the club's point of view obviously we are incredibly proud."
Alex Bibby is helped by coach Jessica Konrath, who was in Costa Rica during the final but FaceTimed in for the whole match.
On their route to the final, the girls had to travel three-and-a-half hours each way sometimes for matches.
Alex said: "We had to play all over the country in the end, our quarter-final game was in Ashby, which is just north of Leicester and then the semi-final was in Chester.
"We were really fortunate to have the final fairly local in Cambridge, but the competition took us far and wide to get to the final.
"The girls were extremely excited at the end of the game and I believe three or four of the girls had to cancel or amend their holidays as they had plans to go straight away at the start of their Easter holidays but they amended it so they could play in the final which I’m sure made their holidays so much sweeter."
Alex has lead the Junior Section at Bury St Edmunds for four years now.
He said: "I know at Bury we have had a boys team that got to the final eight or nine years ago and in my first year we got to the U18 national final but they lost on both occasions, so for the girls to actually win it is an amazing achievement.
"Surbiton is probably the biggest hockey team in the country. When we looked around on finals day at all the other teams playing in Cambridge for their finals, all of them are massive hockey clubs so we are tiny compared to them really.
"It is a massive achievement for the club to be on this national stage because in the grand scheme of things we are a really small hockey club compared to some of these teams.
"We were a little fish in a big pond at the final. It just shows what you can do though and what a team can do if they come together and put in a good shift and train hard as a group and this is what can happen."
Alex said a big part of the victory was down to the fact that the girls come from a variety of different schools.
He said: "I think something that has just been such a good thing for the team. It is really great because they only see each other a few times a week and they look forward to it. They all get on really well."
The girls who are now national champions are Georgia Scarff, Grace Calver, Phoebe Thurlow, Henrietta Croot, Eloise Perry, Caris Gregory, Isobel Dutton, Lotte Hulscher, Isobel Johnson, Lara Gooding, Amelia Harrison-Yip, Libby Stacey, Esther Sheldon, Evie Younger, Lottie Howard and Verity Valentine.
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