A trio of South Delta field hockey standouts will be ringing in 2012 in California.
Sara McManus, Shannon Herold and Emma Mackie are among 33 players invited to a national junior women's camp at Stanford University in preparation for next fall's Junior World Cup Qualifier. All three girls grew up in the Falcons Field Hockey organization and were key members of the highly successful program at South Delta secondary school, overseen by Neil McLennan.
For Herold, the camp is taking place in her own background. The 18-year-old recently completed her freshman season at Stanford where she started in all 21 games at midfield and finished the campaign with a pair of goals and nine assists, helping the Cardinals to an impressive 17-4 overall record.
McManus is a certainty to crack the junior line-up given she is already a full-time member of the national senior team. The 18-year-old is coming off a hectic stretch that saw her play for Canada at the Pan Am Games in Mexico and also help the UBC Thunderbirds win the CIS national championship. She already has 18 senior caps to her credit, having made her senior team debut in 2010.
Mackie, 17, has been a fixture with the national junior program, which trains on a regular basis in Vancouver. She led South Delta to a fourth place finish at last month's provincial "AAA" field hockey championships in Kelowna.
Meanwhile, another homegrown product just returned from San Diego after helping Canada's national junior men's team go unbeaten in a four games series against the United States. Forward Andrew Kanverva was one of 17 players from B.C. on the Canadian roster.
