U10 team wins gold in California

Holger Mentzel (NIIHA)The under 12 and under 10 federation teams sent by the Namibian Ice and Inline Hockey Association (NIIHA) to San Jose, California had a successful participation in the North American Roller Hockey Championship (NARCh) last weekend.Upon completion of the preliminary round robin, the teams proceeded to the finals in the Squirt club division, with Namibia U12 first winning their quarter-final against the Bend Bullets White 8-0.In the semifinals, they faced Verbero Voodoo from Sacramento, losing 2-6 against a well organised team with fast passes and accurate finishing.Thus the Namibian U12s now had one more chance left at being awarded the bronze medal.After a very good game for Namibia, with good passes and many scoring chances, they lost 2-3 against the Terminators despite goals scored by Josef Zeferino (assisted by JW Coetzee) and Luca Mentzel unassisted.Of course the team was disappointed. However, the vast experience that they will be taking back home and the exposure to skilled opponents will most certainly influence the preparation of the team for future competitions.• Even though the U12 team was involved in the finals in the Squirt club division, they already had to fight it out in the preliminary games of the U14 PeeWee Silver club division, which tallied up to having to play up to four matches a day.With the Namibians having lost all four games in this division, they were seeded 12th and proceeded to the playoffs in the PeeWee club division against the 9th Sees Konixx Outcasts from Phoenix, Arizona. The game saw good team work and several chances at the Outcasts goal. However, in the end the Outcasts dominated the game 5-2. The Namibian goals were scores by James de Jager (assisted Micah Januarie) and Valerik Hilber (assisted by Luca Mentzel).Thus the road to gold ended for the U12 Namibian Federation team, having competed in two divisions at the NARCh finals for the US West Coast, and displaying some great hockey under coach Bryan Robbins.UNDER 10With the U10 Namibian teams having qualified for the Squirt Silver division finals, they faced the KIHA Warriors in the quarterfinals and were eliminated 4-3 after overtime.It was a very tough game, yet the players fought hard throughout. This loss ended the U10's participation in the U12 Squirt Silver/Club division.The U10 team however completed their preliminary games in the Mite Silver club division with three wins (by scores of 8-2, 9-1 and 8-0) and one tie (3-3), totalling seven points and ending up being seeded second, and thus moving directly into the semi-finals in the Mite Silver division.The faced the fourth seeded Verbero Voodoo and won 8-0, placing them into the final against Bulldogs Yellow, who were top seeds in the round robin. Namibia was now in the position to show their presence and good play with a lot of local supporters also gathered to cheer for the team.Namibia proceeded to score first and then again to take the early lead, but the Bulldogs fought bounced back strongly to finish 4-4 at full time. Thus the game went into overtime, until the golden/winning goal was scored by Theo Borstlap from team Namibia.It was a great achievement for the Namibian U10 team with coach Brian Sobel, receiving and taking home the NarCh Cup trophy and gold medals at the Silver Creek Sportsplex in San Jose.

U10 team wins gold in California

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Republikein 2025-07-04

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U10 team wins gold in California

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