Age has never been a barrier for Waihī’s Hunter Pert when it comes to setting and achieving goals. The keen inline skater and ice hockey player has dreams of playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in America’s National Hockey League, and at only 12 years old he is already well on his way.
Hunter is heading to St Louis, Missouri, in July to play in the 20th anniversary State Wars roller hockey tournament. It’s billed as the biggest event in roller hockey, with teams participating from across North America and the world. Hunter will be playing for Australia’s Aussie Roos, an 11-and-under team, as a forward.
“He is the only [New Zealander] on the team, they’re from all around Australia,” mum Bonnie Pert said.
His selection for the team came off the back of his success at the Bendigo Cup tournament in Melbourne in March, where he played for the Bendigo Blaze on both the 11-and-under, and 13-and-under teams.
“It’s the first time I’ve been anywhere international,” Hunter said.
“I played in two grades… we played around 15 [40 minute] games. It was nerve-wracking.”
As well as being named in the Aussie Roos, Hunter also returned from Australia with a couple of medals for his team’s performances – second in plate for the under-11 team, and fifth overall for the under-13 team, and a trophy for most valuable player on the under-11 team.
The wins are validation for Hunter, who has wanted to be a professional player all his life.
“He learnt how to walk holding a hockey stick,” Bonnie said.
“He’s been a goal-setter right from an early age… He never gave up. He kept training, he kept getting better, he kept trialling.”
Currently, Hunter plays inline hockey for the Mt Maunganui Mustangs, and travels to Auckland for ice hockey.
“We’ve kind of got to go where the players are, and [we] travel a lot,” Bonnie said.
“I never thought I would travel the world thanks to my kids, but I’m happy that they’re doing it.”
Bonnie said the family is also looking ahead to next year’s Bendigo Cup, and is hoping to raise the profile of the sport in New Zealand and take some other players along with them.
“We’d like to get some more exposure and try and bring some more competitive, for the juniors, hockey to New Zealand,” she said.
“There’s a lot of kids in New Zealand who are talented. They just didn’t know about the tournament, and since we’ve come back, they’re all kind of like, ‘we’re keen’.”
Meanwhile, Hunter is brushing up his skills ahead of the July tournament.
“We’ve had to catch up and work out how we can support him,” Bonnie said.
“Being so young, it can be a bit of a block because normally we’re looking at older kids who have these kinds of goals.
“And when he first started, his body had to catch up with where his head was already at. Now we’re just trying to keep the ego in check.”
