It's been a year of success and adventure for Jack Marshall.
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The Tamworth teenager's hockey talents have in 2022 taken him far and wide, even across to the other side of the world.
"It's been pretty good," the 15-year-old reflected of his year.
Not that it is over yet.
In November he will go away with the Tamworth under-15s, and under-18s, to the State Indoor Championships.
The 15s carnival will be played in Orange on November 11-12 and the 18s at the end of the month.
Marshall enjoys indoor as a bit of fun. Outdoor is his focus.
In Year 10 at Farrer, he is coming off his best season since he first picked up a hockey stick back in minkey.
It started back in April when he co-captained the NSW Lions side at the national under-15s championships in Newcastle.
He then spent the July school holidays in Holland and Belgium on an under-16s development tour.
Run by Sportslink Travel, it was an eye-opening, and great, experience.
"It was really good, it's very different over there," Marshall said.
"The amount of people that play; the amount of fields.
"Every club had at least 2000 members and about seven fields per club.
"One of them had 14 fields. It was huge."
It was also a different style of hockey.
Marshall was fortunate to stay on for an extra week and spend some time in Cologne and Amsterdam.
He was not long back from that and he was winging his way to Hobart with the NSW under-16 All Schools team for the School Sports Australia Hockey Championships.
They were undefeated to claim the gold.
It was the first of five title/premiership wins Marshall was involved in with his Kiwis first grade and 15s sides both taking out their respective competitions.
He also played juniors and grade with Norths down in Newcastle.
His Norths second grade team were victorious defeating their club counter-parts.
Unfortunately Marshall, who is a centre-half, wasn't able to play the grand final as it was the same day as the Tamworth grand finals and he was busy helping Kiwis to a history-making premiership haul (they clean swept the men's grades and also won the 15s and under-13s).
But he did get to play the junior grand finals the weekend before. Norths won the A Division but lost the B Division.
It was his second season playing grade in Newcastle but first doing the juniors as well.
Travelling down of a Friday after school to play juniors, then back to Tamworth and turning out for Kiwis on Saturday, before heading back down to Newcastle for grade on a Sunday, it was a big commitment.
But he felt like his game developed, which was one of the main reasons for him doing it.
It was a lot of hockey too but he loves it. Has since he started playing in the under-9s.
"They just did something at school, and then I just joined up with a club and it went from there," he said.
Looking ahead, having graduated out of the 15s, he is part of the Athlete Acceleration Program (AAP) squad and is hoping to make the 18s team for nationals.
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