SOCCER - Big effort pays off for Wilkinson

A big effort by North Force striker Hannah Wilkinson paid dividends last week with the 15-year-old breaking into the United One team for the upcoming women's national football league.
The Kamo High School student is the only player from Northland to make it into the tournament team after training with the extended squad for several weeks in Auckland.
"I'm really looking forward to the start of the league, we've got a pretty strong team, they're quite young, but there's also quite a few players from last year," she said.
Four Northland players: Estelle Harrison, Katie Rood and Ruby Dodd were selected in the side's original training squad but only Wilkinson made the team.
The achievement is even more impressive if you consider that Wilkinson is playing in only her second season of senior competition.
The National Women's League was introduced as a league format in 2002 and is played on an inter-federation basis. There is one team representing each of New Zealand's seven federations while an eighth team - based on national age-group squads for upcoming FIFA tournaments - is sometimes included.
For the 2007 season, the competition will feature only the seven federation teams and be contested over seven rounds. United One's first match is against Mainland in Christchurch next Sunday.
The teenager said her parents Karen and Simon were definitely in her good books after the team was announced, after spending hours every week driving down to Auckland for training sessions.
Wilkinson still has to work out how she will continue fulfilling her commitments with the federation's under-16 team.
"I was selected even though I missed the trial and training starts in the first weekend of the holidays but I can't really train four nights a week in Auckland so we'll have to work something out with the coaches," she said.
" Northern Federation: Ashleigh Cox, Rebecca Simpson, Lisa Kemp, Catherine Porteous, Anna Barlow, Michele Hogg, Caitlin Campbell, Lauren Mathis, Alice Bresnahan, Therese Saito, Jen Kendall, Bridgette Armstrong, Alison Wintle, Aroon Clancy (Glenfield Rovers), Katie Bowen (Oratia), Hayley Stirling (Hibiscus Coast), Hannah Wilkinson (North Force), Tessa Berger, Sarah Hadwin (Hibiscus Coast), Sam Burton (West Auckland).