From Lismore Minkies to Futures via Pursu32+

Tenacious Lismore local Maya McGrath has lofty ambitions to represent her country at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and knows all too well about the dedication, application and sacrifice that’s needed to realise this goal.

Growing up in Lismore, playing hockey was part of being in the McGrath family and the teenager remembers her first hockey stick, which was bright yellow.

“I got into it because my whole family played hockey. I just loved it as soon as I started. My dad played at a pretty high level as has my sister,” the aspiring Hockeyroo said.

She started playing Minkies – modified hockey for kids – for Easties, a local Lismore club, and very quickly progressed through the ranks, playing up as the Club was small and extra players were always needed.

“I always played at a higher level, stood my ground and really enjoyed it,” she said.

That experience led to her selection in the U13 state team, when she was just 11 years old and she made the same team the following year, which won the national competition.

“I loved playing and representing NSW and I just knew that I wanted to keep playing and representing and improving,” said McGrath. “I used to go and watch my older sister at all the national tournaments and I was just in awe and wanted to get out there and play.”

Fast forward several years and McGrath is on the Pursu32+ highway to realising her dreams. She has been identified as one of 30 athletes in the 2023 Futures Hockey Australia squad as selected at the National Championships held in Hobart in July and is also part of the NSWIS and Regional Academy of Sport (RAS) Pursu32+ talent program.

“NSWIS provides so much support and it’s such a strong advantage being able to have this exposure to a high performance environment because it’s so good,” McGrath said after attending the Pursu32+ workshop.

“I’ve learnt so much coming here [NSWIS] – I have learnt so much about nutrition and the importance of warm-up. I went back and it just improved me as an athlete because I knew more about my body and what I needed to be a stronger player.”

Her current selections are a result of hard work, sacrifice and money, plus the never-ending support of her family.

“It’s constant travel,” she said. “I’m away from school all the time. I missed out on four weeks of school this year, which is a fair bit being in year 12. I travelled down every Friday or Saturday to play in the Sydney competition, and I’d fly home Monday mornings and go straight to school.

“I needed that environment to improve my hockey. But it’s a big commitment and I missed out on a lot, like graduating and social things, which was disappointing. But I knew it’s the commitment I had to make to make it at high level, which it ended up paying off because I made Futures.”

It was also a huge financial commitment by her parents, who supported her travel by either paying for the flights or driving McGrath the 10 hours to Sydney.

Despite the challenges, McGrath has her sights set on making the Jillaroos and one day the Hockeyroos. Her participation in the Pursu32+ RAS talent program is part of the journey.

“I’ve learnt technical things about the warm up and the importance of stretching [at the Pursu32+ workshop], which was really good feedback. We did jumping and bounding to prepare your legs and it’s stuff like that you don’t realise is actually impacting your performance.”

The 18-year-old continues to focus on the future and has been liaising with NSWIS women’s hockey head coach, Ben Senior, who has been helping her with her game technique.

And despite her older sister never watching her at Nationals, she is looking forward to spending more time with her in Sydney.

“She’s never watched me at nationals because it’s kind of hard, but we play together in Sydney, so that’s really exciting. I love that.”

Photo: Mitchell Soames