Matching or bettering their eighth place finish last year will bring a lot of satisfaction for Tauranga Boys' College's hockey first eleven in the prestigious Rankin Cup national secondary schools tournament.

The event is being staged in Tauranga for the first time since 2000, and the hometown advantage will be a mixed blessing for the team, says manager Logan Gemming.

'I think it'll be a double-edged sword for sure. I think for our boys it's probably the first time playing in front of lots of local supporters.

'That'll be really cool but I guess coming with that is also the pressure of playing in front of your support.

'So our boys are trying not to get carried away with the hometown advantage, we're staying in camp over at the Mount to try and make sure we can do the best we can.”

Boosting the confidence of the team, which had a successful start to the season going through the local men's reserve grade competition undefeated but an up and down record in its interschool matches, is the number of players who reached the Midlands under 18 team.

Captain Connor Garner, Ethan Larsen, goalkeeper William Gourley, Matt Pinkerton, and Sam Britain made the representative team, the most the school has contributed for a long time, Logan says.

'But we're strong across the board. A number of boys who weren't in that team are doing really well too.

'Our goal as a team is certainly to make the top eight,” he says, 'but we're pretty realistic – it is the top 32 teams in the country.

'We were really happy with how we went last year, eighth was the best our school's done in a number of years. But we're optimistic we can equal that or surpass it.”

Tauranga Boys' College's best ever Rankin Cup result was second in 2003, when the school's two Black Sticks legends Stephen Graham and Andy Haywood were in the team. Repeating that achievement would be a dream result for the current team, but perhaps having Stephen as their coach is a good omen.

Hockey Tauranga General Manager Clinton Butler says it's an exciting time for his association having the top secondary school boys' teams coming to town.

'It's going to be a tense environment. A lot of people are coming here with high expectations, and not everyone can win the trophy.”

He's expecting the crowds at the two venues – the Tauranga Hockey Centre at Blake Park and Tauranga Boys' College's Cameron Road turf – to be witnessing a few future Black Sticks in action.

'Yeah definitely. I think there'll be players that come out of here that go on and represent New Zealand. There'll players that go on from here and represent their regions in the National Hockey League too.

'A lot of it's about school pride and putting their best foot forward, and having that mantle of being a Rankin Cup champion, or even attending the Rankin Cup.

'A lot of schools put a lot of energy into preparing for this tournament. This is what it's all about. Everyone has their hockey season, and this is the big dance at the end that everyone plays for.”

Tauranga Boys' are putting first things first, says Logan, and looking no further than getting out of their pool at this stage. They are in pool H along with Lindisfarne College of Hastings, Auckland's Rosmini College and Burnside High School from Christchurch.

'Getting a good start on Monday in beating Lindisfarne and Rosmini is really the key. And obviously once we're out of our pool we can focus on the ultimate goal of making the top eight.

'But we know we've got a really difficult crossover. We crossover with the Auckland champs St Kents and last year's national champions Christ's College, so we know that we've got to get out of our pool first and if we're lucky enough to do that the real tournament starts again on Wednesday.”

Tauranga Boys' open their tournament at 10:40 Monday morning against Lindisfarne on the Beach Turf at Tauranga Hockey Centre, then take on Rosmini at 6:40 also on the Beach Turf. They complete pool play against Burnside at 1:20 Tuesday on their home school turf.

Full tournament information and draws are at http://www.tgahockey.co.nz/AON-Rankin-CupIndia-Shield-Tournament-2018/Tournament-Information-1