Hockey star Nikki Symmons has won 91 senior caps, and hopes to reach the century mark in Canada next month when Ireland attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games, writes Mary Hannigan
NIKKI SYMMONS'S greatest fans are her grandparents, and she wants to book them the trip of a lifetime, to the Beijing Olympics. At six years of age her grandparents, Harry and Rhona Booker, taught her hand-to-eye co-ordination and since then Nikki Symmons hasn't looked back. "'Keep your eye on the ball, keep your eye on the ball, they'd tell me," she says. Her only difficulty from there on was whether it should be a cricket, tennis or hockey ball she was focusing on.
"She rang me after playing her first cricket match for Wesley College," Harry says. "I asked her how many runs she scored. 'Four,' she said. A week later she rang after her second match. How many runs? It was more than 80. Then she won the cup with Wesley - she was 103 not out off 20 overs." So she was getting the hang of it? "She was. The only thing is, I scored 108 not out for High School on the same ground, St Columba's, in 1937," he laughs.
"But she got it all from me," says the voice in the background - and it's her grandmother, Rhona, staking her claim for recognition in the Nikki Symmons story.
Harry's 108 not out isn't his only claim to fame; he got on an international pitch for Ireland before his granddaughter was born. "We dusted down this old video of a really old Ireland versus England rugby game a while ago, and there was granddad," Symmons says, "running on the pitch."
Did he play for Ireland? "No, I'm not sure, I think he was their 'magic sponge' man." Harry laughs at the description. "Yes, I was the go-fer for a while," he says, although his official title, back in the 1960s, was assistant secretary of the Irish Rugby Football Union.
Sport was in the family blood, then. Tennis was another of Symmons's talents, and her mother Melanie drove her around the Irish circuit in her youth. But soon hockey took over, and it has dominated her life ever since. At the age of 25, Symmons has already won 91 senior caps, and hopes to reach the century mark in Canada next month when Ireland attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games, the ultimate dream of Symmons and her team-mates.
"Our lives would change," she says. "It would be a huge thing for us, and it would do so much for hockey in Ireland."
Will your grandparents be there? "No, they won't get to Vancouver, but I've told them if we make it to the Olympics they're definitely going to Beijing."
The fact that he is 89 is unlikely to stop Harry. He and Rhona have, after all, faithfully followed their granddaughter around Ireland and Europe when she has played for club (Loreto) and country in tournaments. "It's the only time he takes me away," says Rhona. "Did you hear that?" asks a laughing Harry. Beijing? "We'll see," he says, but you half-suspect he and Rhona have their bags packed, just in case.
Since the turn of the year, much of Symmons's time has been spent packing and unpacking her bags. She's only just back from New Zealand, a trip largely funded by the ESB, the Irish squad's enthusiastic sponsors.
There they played their hosts and China in games designed to fine-tune their preparations for Canada, against the best opposition they could find. They beat New Zealand, ranked seventh in the world, in one of the matches, a result and performance that makes Symmons believe Olympic qualification, despite the odds, is more than a possibility. Ireland, ranked 14th in the world, are second seeds in the tournament, but Korea (ranked nine) are the favourites - and only one team goes through to Beijing.
Before New Zealand, the squad travelled to Spain and South Africa for training camps and matches, and will play Britain and France in six matches in Dublin, before they depart.
"It's a busy schedule all right, but I'm really lucky because I don't have a nine-to-five job at the moment, like some of the girls," she says. Symmons, a Montessori teacher by profession, is devoting as much time as she can muster to her hockey these days, and working as head hockey coach at Notre Dame school.
Under the Irish Hockey Association's Aspire programme (contributors to which include the Irish Sports Council, Sport Northern Ireland and corporate and private donors), members of the squad receive financial support amounting to €500 or €250 a month, depending on what tier they are in. "It's definitely a step in the right direction," says Symmons, "because there was never any kind of financial support before."
Having had a taste of full-time hockey when she spent a season with Eintracht Braunschweig in Germany, Symmons is trying to become the first "semi-professional, at least" player in Ireland. Signed up to Tri-Line Sports Solutions, a sports management company run by David McHugh, a former Olympic sailor, whose clients include Irish rugby internationals Malcolm O'Kelly, Keith Gleeson and Robert Kearney, and athlete Eileen O'Keeffe, Symmons's goal is to find enough personal sponsorship to allow her to concentrate full-time on hockey.
"Even if it doesn't happen for me, it might pave the way for the next group of players. I've got Glanbia sponsoring me individually, which is a good start. I'm the first hockey player to do that. It's not easy - a rugby player might get a deal worth, say, €30,000; I'd be looking for €1,000 or €2,000, so it's totally different. But we're working hard on it, we'll see where it goes.
"Playing full-time in Germany was brilliant, the training especially. It's a whole different attitude, they train like they're going to play. Even their mini-matches are so competitive - here it's 'sorry, sorry, I hit you', or 'sorry, sorry, that was a bad pass'; over there it's 'what are you doing? You're crap'. Especially if you're not going in hard on tackles," she says with a laugh.
"I think it's just the Irish mentality, though, in all sports, to say - well, they did their best. Although it is changing, you only have to listen to the critics in the various sports: 'they should have done better'. People gave out about Roy Keane for his attitude, but that's the way you have to be, you have to have everything right, you have to try to be the best you can be, otherwise you'll never get there."
It hasn't all been plain sailing for Symmons. The star of her school team, Wesley College, who won the Leinster Senior Cup in 1998, her progress to the senior ranks with Ireland was less than smooth in the early days. For the first time in her sporting career, she experienced life under a coach who, initially at least, was less than convinced by her abilities.
"I don't want to sound big-headed but in school it was always a case of "give the ball to Nikki", then you meet Riet [Kuper, the previous Irish coach] and you're brought down to earth. It was awful at the time, but in fairness to her I really think it helped me. I've learned from it and realised that I'm not the be-all-and-end-all.
"Even in life it has made me a tougher person, that whole experience, not many people have that. Up and down, in and out of the squad. I ended up saying, 'feck this, I'm going to try my hardest because I'm going to make it and I'm going to prove that I should be there.' Others who went through the same sort of treatment left - they just said 'I can't do this', but I just thought, no, I'm going to show you I can do it. It made me a stronger person, it definitely built my character, and in the end I got on her great with her, and still do."
Now coached by South African Gene Muller, the Irish players are currently training six days a week, with gym on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. "You dread those Thursday mornings, starting at 6.30am. Running and lifting weights at that time of the morning is a nightmare - but it has to be done.
"I've been playing senior hockey for Ireland for seven years, and underage before that, and I'm feeling it now, at 25. I've had a few problems with my hips and wrists, just because of wear and tear, but every player goes through the same. It's our choice to do it, we love it, the trips abroad, meeting people, the team, the friends you make, all of that, it's worth everything. I haven't any long-term plans, but I think I'll keep going until I collapse." And with that she's off to training. There are targets to be met, such as getting Ireland, Harry and Rhona to Beijing.
The Irish women's hockey team's Olympic qualifying matches take place in Vancouver, Canada on April 26th-May 4th