Sam Wright-Smith and Scott Crisafi claim NSW indoor hockey title

The achievement comes just days after South Coast’s Iszi Crawford and Mackeznie Ford secured the same double with under 15s girls’ team. 

Culburra Beach’s Wright-Smith and Callala’s Crisafi both played starring roles in helping their Illawarra South Coast side take out the state indoor championship, held recently at Niagara Park on the Central Coast,  six months after guiding their outdoor side to the NSW summit.

The boys team opened their state titles account with a big 7-4 win against Grafton, before beating Hockey New England 4-nil later that day.

The pair’s side then backed it up on day two, smashing Newcastle 5-1 before edging Parkes 5-3, to maintain their unbeaten record going into the finals.

“For a young side, we played exceptionally well [during the pool games],” Wright-Smith said.

“Our coach Dave Johnson had prepared the team really well for the fast pace of the competition and the fitness we needed to keep up.

“We tried to stick to the structure he'd coached us to play with and that meant that we were able to keep the ball down the opposition's end and also work for penalty corners, which is how we scored most of our goals.”

ISC continued their strong play in the semi-final, thumping North West Sydney 6-1, setting a grand final showdown with Tamworth.

“Tamworth also went into the final undefeated, so we knew we had a tough game ahead of us,” Wright-Smith, who was the ISC captain, said.

“We managed to score two quick goals early in the game to get a lead which we took into half-time.

“We got the momentum back early in the second half, and the rest of the goals came from there.”

Wright-Smith himself scored five of the goals in the final, four from penalty corners.

“Tamworth scored a goal with two minutes to go, but by then the pressure had eased and we knew we had the win [6-1],” he said.

Once the siren sounded, the boys realised that they had just achieved something quite special – the double NSW indoor and outdoor title.

“Being part of the Illawarra South Coast team that got the double is a great achievement as a team and also for our coach Dave Johnson, who has put many hours into coaching and mentoring us to prepare us for these tournaments,” Wright-Smith said.

“We had a really good lead up to the championships, with solid training sessions and carnivals in Canberra and Moorebank before field state championships, and also an indoor carnival on the Central Coast before indoor state champs.

“It's always a privilege to be awarded the title of state champions, as we were playing against some great teams and a lot of team mates from the state team who always put up a good fight.

“To be recognised as the top teams in both field and indoor is a real honour, and to do it in the same year makes all of the hard work worth it.”

Making it even more special for Shoalhaven High School student Wright-Smith has the fact he secured the double alongside fellow Shoalhaven product Crisafi.

“Scott and I have been playing together since we were seven, along with Izsi Crawford who played Shoalhaven juniors with us and was a member of the Illawarra South Coast Girls Under 15 team that also won the state championship the day before,” he said.

“Scott and I have played in more representative teams now than we could count, from Shoalhaven under 9s with Izsi, through to South Coast PSSA, Illawarra and the NSW State field team.

“Because of that, it makes the win even sweeter.”

Capping off the exceptional tournament for the pair’s ISC team was the fact they took out two other awards – Play the Whistle Award and Player of the Tournament Award.

“I felt privileged to captain the under 15s ISC side, as we haven't won an indoor state championship in that age group for quite a few years,” Wright-Smith said.

“Every win as a captain is always special, and this one carried an extra acknowledgement for the team as we were also awarded the play the whistle award for division one, which is given to teams who display respect and courtesy to umpires and officials. 

“This tournament also marked the first time I’d received the Player of the Tournament Award at a state championship – it was a real honour to be awarded this as there were a lot of strong players there who I've played with in the indoor and field state teams who could also have received the award.

“I scored 18 goals across the tournament, which I think helped contribute to earning this award.”

Following this tournament, Wright-Smith was also named in the Hockey NSW under 15 boys indoor team for the Australian Titles, which will be held at Goulburn’s Veolia Arena in January.