THE Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners may be sworn enemies, but coach Scott McCarter is banking on a mix of players from the A-League academies to lead Hunter Sports High to a second Bill Turner Cup title.
Hunter Sports High (HPS) take on Endeavour Sports High in a semi-final at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Tuesday, kicking off at 3.30pm.
Brisbane school Anglican Grammar meet Narrabeen Sports High in the first semi at 2pm.
HPS last won the prestigious under-15 knockout in 2007. They were runner-up in 2014 and finished third in 2019.
Attacking midfielder Alex Nunes, who played off the bench for the Jets youth team's NPL 3 grand-final win on Saturday night and spent time at Portuguese club Benfica earlier this year, is captain of HPS.
The squad is comprised largely of players from the Jets and Mariners academy sides.
'It is about a 60-40 split, with a couple of boys from NPL clubs as well," McCarter said. 'In the time I have been at the school, this is our most balanced team which is probably why we are where we are.
"We have a strong back four who have spent a lot of time playing together across age groups. We have a midfielder who are familiar with each other and we obviously have some attacking weapons in Al Nunes and Will Dobson.
"The Jets boys are across a couple of age groups. Al Nunes is in the youth team and a couple of the boys play up in the 16s and 18s. The Mariners are the same."
HPS breezed through the regional qualifiers in Coffs Harbour, thrashing local hope St John Paul College 6-0 and Ballina's Xavier Catholic College 9-0.
"Our toughest games were at the start of the tournament," McCarter said. "We won 1-0 against Whitebridge and 2-0 against Central Coast Sports College."
McCarter is expecting a tough assignment against Endeavour.
"All I know is that Endeavour they are a sports high," McCarter said. "Any team which makes the final four is extremely strong. If you get out of those Sydney pools they would have had to beaten at least one other sports high. The teams from Brisbane in the past couple of years have been really strong as well. To get to this point is really hard."
The Hunter does not have a representative in the final four of girls' Bill Turner Trophy.
Cairns State High School take on Westfield Sports High in a semi-final. Central Coast College tackle Melbourne's Rowville Secondary College in the other.
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