She may be juggling coaching and playing indoor and outdoor hockey, as well as completing year 12, but Keilor Downs’ Ellen Polacsek has proven she is up for the challenge.
Ms Polacsek was recently awarded a Sporting Blue Award for hockey in 2016, which makes her the most outstanding female hockey player in the Victorian government school system.
“I was amazed I won it,” she said.
“I took my mum and dad to the MCG for the awards, it was beyond anything I’d experienced before, all these talented athletes in the room and past Olympians presenting us was very cool.”
Throughout 2016 she juggled her club commitments with Altona’s top sides, as well as representing Victoria at under-18 and under-21 level in both the outdoor and indoor national championships.
She was the top goal scorer at the under-18 indoor championships.
She also coached an indoor side.
“Last year was a real highlight for me, I was lucky to play in all those teams and spend two weeks in Woolongong in January which was a lot of fun,” Ms Polacsek said.
Ms Polacsek began playing at Essendon Hockey Club when she was seven, quickly showing great promise as she made her first state team a few years later in the under-12 side.
“Making that first under-12 side gave me the confidence to stick with hockey,” she said.
“I’ve had disappointments along the way, like being an emergency or just being in the training squad, but at the same time learning from those has helped me do better the next time around.”
She hopes to make the open-age state sides in the coming years, on a path to hopefully represent Australia.
