School ice hockey: Ice-cool Scoon helps Britain to fifth in Tromso

Balwearie High School’s Bethany Scoon helped GB finish fifth in the division one under-18 World Championships in Tromso in Norway last week.

One of the youngest members of the team, the Kirkcaldy 16-year-old is a member of Fife Falcons and has also recently started playing for Kingston Diamonds in Hull.

In recognition of her achievements, Balwearie High School has nominated Bethany for Kirkcaldy’s Young Sports Person Award – the result will be announced in March.

The only other Scot in the GB team was Ruth Wallace, a former pupil of Eastwood High School.

Bethany followed in the ice skates of her older brother, Josh, and she has been playing since she was just seven years old.

The GB team qualified for the World Championship finals by finishing second in the qualification tournament in Asiago in Italy at the beginning of December.

“Finishing fifth in division one at the World Championships makes us ranked 13th in the world and that is the highest for any British ice hockey team,” said Bethany.

“We only started playing together in September so it was a really good result.

“Once I turned 16, I was able to join the Kingston Diamonds women’s team. It is a quite difficult fitting everything in, but the school has been so supportive.”

Studying for five Highers, the fifth year pupil hopes to carry on with ice hockey at university and her goal is to play for the full GB team. “I might even take some time out and go abroad,” she said. “It would be nice to get the chance to play in Canada.”