Hockey & Netball: Dream teens focused on a common goal

Two Hamilton-based teenage sports stars, Silver Fern Casey Williams and Black Stick Clarissa Eshuis, play for different national teams but are treading intertwined paths towards next year's Commonwealth Games.

Players from their two codes - netball and hockey - don't usually have a lot in common and their competitive trails only cross once every four years - at the Games. But Williams and Eshuis have a close family bond forged by Eshuis' big brother Wessel, Williams' boyfriend, and have enjoyed a remarkably similar rapid rise to the elite level of their sport.

Williams is billed as the next defensive star for the Silver Ferns. Eshuis is the latest baby Black Stick defensive hope.

They are only a year apart, Williams is 19 and Eshuis 18, and both are pursuing sports-related degrees in Hamilton.

And Wessel is the final link, the one that puts them in each other's orbit on a weekly basis.

Williams goes out with Wessel so the two women hang out, either at the couple's flat or the Eshuis family home.

The connections create a cross-code extended sporting family and the pair revel in each other's success and offer support through the difficult patches.

"I think Clara and I are both going through the same things. We understand the pressures of playing for your country and what a fantastic honour it is," said Williams.

"I am close to the youngest in the Silver Ferns and Clara is the youngest in the Black Sticks squad, so we have been there for each other a lot."

Standing at a towering 1.87m, Williams is a spectacular defender capable of dazzling elevation.

She was first named in the Ferns squad in September 2004, travelling to Australia with another youngster, Laura Langman, as a training partner. She was named again to meet England in March, stepping into a spot vacated by the injured Lesley Rumball, but is yet to make her on-court debut.

She has made the team to play Australia in the one-off Holden test series next month when she hopes to make it on to the court.

Eshuis was the bolter of the Black Sticks team named to meet the USA in a five-test series in the lower North Island last month.

She had thought she was just at the April training camp at North Harbour to make up the numbers but her strong tackling and distribution skills were noted and she played in all five of the tests, New Zealand coach Ian Rutledge making the most of the opportunity to blood her.

She just missed the Black Sticks team to compete in the Champions Trophy in Virginia Beach in July but is a strong contender to make the team for the Indira Gandhi Cup tournament in New Delhi in October as Rutledge continues her development towards the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Williams and Eshuis regularly watch each other's games, with Eshuis enjoying going along to watch Williams play for the Magic in the National Bank Cup. The Waikato-based franchise will compete in their first cup final next weekend.

If the Magic win, it will cap a brilliant 12 months for Williams, who was also part of the Waikato team that won the Smokefree national title last September.

"I watched the semifinal against the Force," Eshuis said. "I didn't know much about netball but with Casey there I have been following it and learning more."

Williams couldn't help but absorb a bit of hockey knowledge. Wessel plays for Waikato and his father, Wilgert, only recently stopped playing and is a Waikato hockey stalwart.

The family is of Dutch extraction and Williams has picked up a little of the language.

"We're very lucky," said Williams, "because both our families are very supportive - I know Clara's parents, Wilgert and Birgetta, go everywhere with her when she plays."

Williams said Wessel, who she has been with for eight months, is also a great supporter.

"He always puts me first all the time and makes sure I am training and that sort of thing," she said.

She has also been to several of Eshuis' games but following her progress at provincial level is about to become more difficult. Eshuis is relocating to Christchurch to join the regional high performance group led by Rutledge. Who she will play for in the September Lion Foundation NZ Hockey League is yet to be decided.

"It will be sad and different not having Clara around," Williams said.

The coming year will be a busy one for the pair but particularly for Williams, who also has commitments with the New Zealand under-21 netball team which will compete in the 2005 World Youth Cup in the USA next month.

Whatever the coming year brings in both the teenagers' respective sports you can be sure of one thing - their sights are firmly on next March in Melbourne, where they hope their sporting paths will cross officially for the first time.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY