Sophia Green with the Hardest Worker hard hat after the England U15 game against the Czech Select side in Bratislava (Photo by Anthony Green)
Widnes Wild women’s team player Sophia Green became the latest local ice hockey player to gain international honours after taking part in a trip to Slovakia with the England Under 15 team at the weekend.
The 14 year old – who also plays for the Wild Academy Under 16 (mixed) team and Manchester Storm U16s girls team – was selected for the England side after attending a number of training camps. She was also given the additional honour of being named as one of two “alternate captains” for the trip.
The England team were supposed to be playing in a 3-way tournament with games against a Czech select side and a Slovakian select side but the Slovaks dropped out at the last minute and the schedule had to be hastily re-arranged at the Hamuliakovo rink in Bratislava.
The England girls played 4 games against the Czechs over the two days, losing 2-1, 3-0 and 4-1 in the early encounters, but still putting in good performances.
However, on the Sunday, once they had better acclimatised to their surroundings and the opposition, the England U15s played out a barnstorming 5-5 draw against the Czechs after initially going 4-0 down - and went on to win the resulting penalty shoot out! Sophie played a key role in this game and afterwards was presented with the honorary “hard hat” for Hardest Worker of the game.
To use up the spare ice time that was available due to the Slovakia team games not being played, the EIHA put on an extra 3-on-3 tournament against the Czechs and the Czech coaches kindly ran some training sessions for the England girls, which were of great benefit to them.
Sophia’s father, Anthony Green, who was watching from the stands said: “The England girls played really well. The girls battled hard and really did look like a team to be reckoned with. Overall Sophia finished with 2 goals and copious amounts of knowledge and experience, which is priceless.”
