Henley teenage hockey player takes step closer to Olympic dream

A GIRL from Henley has been selected to be part of the England hockey U16 squad.

Emma Jean-Jean, 15, who was born in Lyon but now lives in Henley, is a Year 10 pupil at Gillotts School.

She has played hockey since she was about five years old and currently plays at Reading Hockey Club, after previously playing at Henley Hockey Club, and in France.

Emma lives with her parents, Alison and Nico and sisters Lucy and Charlotte, having moved from Lyon in 2018.

She said: “My whole family plays hockey. My dad, Nico, played for France men’s and so did my grandfather, Bernard.

“My aunt played for Team GB and Reading and her husband played twice at the Olympics. My parents even met playing hockey. It’s definitely a family sport for us.”

Emma told of how her grandfather was her first coach in Lyon, as he used to coach the under-6s team.

She said: “My cousins and I, we all started playing hockey at the same time, and our grandfather was the coach for both the under sixes and the under-8s team.

“We would call him grandad, and all the other children would hear us call him grandad and just assume that was his name, so they all called him that too.

“There’s a bunch of 15-year-olds at the club now who still call him grandad.”

Emma entered a regional talent academy in Reading and was then selected to play at a hockey festival held at Nottingham Hockey Centre last summer. The athletes played three games over three days, which were watched by England scouts and then a few were selected for trials for the national team.

Emma said: “We were on a family backpacking trip in the Pyrenees when I found out I had been selected for the trials.

“We had been walking for about five days, and this was the first time we’d had any reception for ages.

“I unlocked my phone and I had so many messages from people congratulating me and I had absolutely no idea what was happening but then my mum checked her emails and saw that I had been selected for trials.

“I had a sob on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, but it was an absolutely amazing feeling.”

Emma then had to attend two training camps in September and October where the England squad was chosen. About 44 athletes attended the camps, with 27 being selected.

Emma said: “It’s so funny, because I remember for so long, talking to my coaches and saying that this is what I want to do and this is where I want to be.

“It’s amazing to turn around and think, ‘Oh my goodness, I am actually here’. There are so many things that I, hopefully, have to look forward to but to be here now is absolutely amazing.”

Emma said that, due to her birthday being in the autumn, the next step would be to trial for the England U18 squad, which she described as a “daunting task”.

She said: “I would like to go to the Olympics one day.

“I would really like to play in the European Hockey League and the Hockey Premiers in England but the Olympics is definitely up there in my dreams of things I would like to accomplish.”

Emma recently played for England at their first international series against Ireland last month. She captained the team for the second game, which England won.

She has now been selected to play at an international Six Nations tournament at Easter, in Tonbridge, Kent.

Her England team will play the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, Scotland and France, with her first match being against the French.

Emma said: “It’s so ironic that my first international, well, proper international match is against France.

“My grandad will ask, are you singing the national anthem? I’ll be thinking, not the one you want me to!

“My friends have been so supportive and it’s so nice to have people recognise how much work it takes. A lot of my peers are hockey players too and they truly understand.

“My hockey friends are very supportive, in a competitive way, but with things like this, it makes us run faster, work harder, and it makes us better.”

Her sisters and her parents all currently play at Henley Hockey Club. Her mother, said: “We are super proud of Emma. We are so happy for her that she has managed to set herself an objective, and say what she wants to do, and then she’s gone and done just that.”