Sporting Amber eyes off the world

Indigenous schoolgirl Amber Mutch got a firsthand sample of European hockey and history, and now she wants more.

Amber Mutch is clear about what she got out of her Australian schoolgirls hockey tour of Europe.

“It gave me the chance to see who I’ll be playing when I make the Olympics,” she said matter-of-factly.

The Indigenous 16-year-old Toowoomba schoolgirl has no doubts about where life is taking her and, given her achievements so far, you’d be a brave person to argue against her being on at least one Olympic squad.

Amber is a national-level player in both touch football and hockey. She was named player of the tournament at last year’s First Contact international touch carnival in Brisbane and was selected in the national under-18s touch football team.

However, she turned down her spot when she was named for the School Sports Australia 16-years girls’ hockey side’s tour of Europe. Amber and a dozen other girls from across Australia flew over in March, taking in France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.

They played girls teams from all countries except France, including the older German under-18 national squad. “The Germans were tough,” she said. “They looked like a men’s team. They were fit-as. Their (under-) 18s team was a national team.”

The teams from hockey-mad Holland were equally impressive. “Their 15 (years) team was amazing,” Amber said.

The Aussie girls lost all three of their games against the German teams and won two of the seven games they played on the whole tour, but Amber says the experience was much more valuable than the results. The tour gave her experience against some of the world’s best junior players.

“It will make (my playing) stronger and smarter,” she said.

On top of that, there was the cultural side. Amber’s mind bubbles with the experience. “We went to the Eiffel Tower – we walked up the stairs, 630 steps, to the top,” she said. “We went to the (Notre Dame) cathedral, to the Louvre, and to the place where Princess Diana stayed. We went everywhere.”

“Everywhere” includes experiences like seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, visiting the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam and Napoleon’s tomb in Paris, touring World War I battlefields on the Somme and at Fromelles, and riding the 300 km/h Thalys train from Paris to Brussels.

“The trip I had was a good experience, just meeting different people,” she said.

However, the sport is never far away from Amber’s mind.

“We met (four-time world player of the year) James Dwyer, the Hockeyroo,” she said.

“We saw him in Holland (where he plays). We went to watch his club game – they get 400 people at a club game!”

The experience has opened Amber’s eyes to her future possibilities. Aside from the Olympics, she can now see herself playing in European competitions. “I would like to go back there and play,” she said.