Tournament winners SFX

Greenbank Sports Academy hosted the first event of the North West Regional Games 2015: a Power Hockey Tournament involving four local schools, on Friday 10^thJuly.

Teams from St Francis Xavier’s College (SFX), Meadowside, Woodchurch High and Mosslands Schools took part in a highly competitive tournament.

The final involving SFX and Mosslands was very evenly contested with teams separated by a penalty shootout after finishing 1 – 1. SFX eventually won the game 2-1 after penalties.

Many of the 25 players were completely new to the sport, which has been developed at Greenbank Sports Academy to enable electric wheelchair users to take part in a fast moving team sport on a level playing field with their non-disabled peers.

Greenbank’s Chief Executive Gerry Kinsella, who has been closely involved with the development of power hockey commented:

“Power hockey, through the use of a specially developed wheelchair, with propulsion mechanism to fire a ball at the push of a button, enables severely disabled people to take part in team sport (often for the first time).

It has been fantastic to see some of our regular disabled players take part in the tournament alongside their non-disabled friends and be the best on their team.

We hold training sessions at Greenbank Sports Academy most Wednesdays from 5 – 6pm and new players are always welcome.”