Scott Anderson, NZ Captain and Keeper
 |
| Scott Anderson |
March 7, 2000 
Off The Crossbar
> Page Views 6595
If Scott Anderson can lead his team to Olympic qualification this month in Japan, it will just add another special event to his life in the year 2000. At 31, Scott will retire this year, after playing 10 years of international hockey, and focus on his life as a family man and a police officer. If all goes well, he will captain his team at the Sydney Olympics. And in July, he and his wife Shelley are expecting their first child. ?Another supporter at the Olympics,? Scott says.
Scott Anderson is the Captain and Goalkeeper for the New Zealand hockey team. He played his first game for his country in 1990 at home in NZ against Canada, and has now played 108 international games, including participation in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1998 World Cup, and the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
He has been married Shelley for five years. She is from South Africa. The two met in Paris on a Contiki bus tour in 1992, when Scott was doing some European traveling after the Barcelona Olympics.
Between the posts, his size and smart decision-making have helped the NZ team remain a consistently strong team throughout the 90?s. At the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Osaka, Japan, his skills will be put to the test against the potent South Korean attack, a Great Britain squad that has been scoring plenty of goals recently, and other teams scrapping for an Olympic spot.
Off The Crossbar talked to Scott poolside last week at the Concorde hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament.
Hometown: Oamaru, South Island, NZ
Club: St Luke?s Albertians Mangere
Provincial National League Team: Auckland
Off The Crossbar: When and how did you start playing hockey?
Scott Anderson: I was 7 ? a teacher got me involved in it.
OTC: Why hockey over other sports?
SA: Hockey in primary school was quite big. It was the first sport my family or I had contact with, and I had no pressure from my parents to play rugby or anything else. All the little kids in New Zealand aspire to be All Blacks (NZ rugby players).
OTC: Why did you play in goal?
SA: They said ?Put the little fat kid in goal!?
OTC: So you learned your hockey at school?
SA: I played for my school, then was picked for the New Zealand Under-17 team, and went on from there.
OTC: How big is hockey in New Zealand?
SA: Well, there?s rugby, (rugby) league, soccer, then maybe hockey. Hockey gets pretty good mileage in primary schools. But it gets expensive to play later compared with other sports. Subs (club fees) are about $350 a year to play.
OTC: What do you think differentiates hockey from other sports?
SA: It seems like there?s a sort of carnival atmosphere wherever you go. It doesn?t have the rugby mentality ? it?s civilized!
OTC: What is publicity and sponsorship like for you?
SA: It is a huge problem in New Zealand. It is very much a minority sport in the media?s eyes. There will be nothing in the paper about hockey for weeks on end. And it is very tough to get a TV sponsor, because we?re so small.
OTC: You don?t even have a logo on the front of your National Team jerseys. Do you have a main sponsor?
SA: No. Although we are sponsored by Canterbury clothing company. The girls (NZ women?s team) are sponsored by Philips Ladyshave.
OTC: Do you get support from the New Zealand government?
SA: We get money for the tours we go on, but we don?t get paid any extra money to play.
OTC: Onto the Osaka tournament. Are you looking forward to it?
SA: It?s going to be good. It will be a bit nerve-wracking with so much riding on it ? but that?s what qualifying tournaments are all about.
[Editor?s note: Anderson?s record so far is 100% at qualifying tournaments ? New Zealand made the cut at the 1991 Olympic qualifier in New Zealand and the 1997 World Cup qualifier in Malaysia]
OTC: How do you rate your chances?
SA: Good. If you look at the world rankings, and our performances ? good.
OTC: What about your recent losses to Great Britain (GB recently played 3 matches against NZ in NZ: GB won the first two 6-3 and 6-2, and the teams drew the final game 4-4)
SA: Well the losses to GB hurt our confidence a little bit. But we were coming off the off-season, and the coach was trying a few new players. We have been encouraged by our results here (in Malaysia, at the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, NZ tied Germany and Canada) ? it has been a remarkable improvement.
OTC: How do you see the tournament going?
SA: Korea will be our toughest game. They are playing well right now. (Korea beat NZ 4-1 at the Azlan Shah tournament) Then probably GB. Japan will be quite tough as well.
Ideally we?d like to finish in the top two in our pool. If not, we?ll have to look at the crossovers. If we come third in the pool, we?ll probably play Malaysia, possibly Argentina
Your opinion counts.
Rate this article or enter your comments below.
|
