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Ric Charlesworth is a legend in the hockey world, both as player and coach. The graduate is coaching the Kookaburras and talented midfielder (and UWA graduating student) Fergus Kavanagh. Both have their sights set on gold at the London Olympics.

While not enjoying the high profile, sponsorship or media coverage of Australia's football codes, hockey invariable makes headline news during the Olympics - and little wonder. The Kookaburras is the only Australian team to have won a medal at every one of the past four Olympic Games.

Add to that the fact that the national team is coached by the legendary Ric Charlesworth - who has taken both the Hockeyroos and the Kookaburras to world title wins - and you appreciate why interest peaks during major international championships and why hockey is gradually becoming the sport of choice for more young enthusiasts.

Ric Charlesworth, a UWA graduate, has competed in five Olympics and an eventful career has also seen him practising medicine and being elected to Federal parliament. In the early years of his sporting career he also played cricket for the State alongside Dennis Lillee and UWA graduate John Inverarity.

"He has a certain aura in the hockey community," says Fergus Kavanagh, a Fogarty Foundation Scholar nearing the end of his UWA studies, who is one of four rotating co-captains the coach has selected for the Kookaburras. According to the coach, midfielder is "a skilled, thoughtful, smart and diligent player who has been interchangeable on the field".

Fergus sees his coach as being a great motivator who has dubbed Kookaburra training sessions the ‘university of hockey'.

"He had us reading poetry the other week and going to a Shakespeare in the Park production," says Fergus. "He likes to take us out and about, to broaden us beyond the sporting field - it's one of the reasons why we work so well together as a team.

"Ric has been excellent for the team because he knows how to get the best out of people. He encourages us to be more flexible and versatile players and he's introduced a new style of play that has been very successful for us."

That style, says Fergus, sets the Kookaburras apart from European and South American teams.

"We pride ourselves on our aggressive, attacking game. More than any other international team, our game is about pressuring the opposition at all times, trying not to give them any time on the ball. People say we're aggressive because we love to score and force mistakes in our opponents and Ric introduced that emphasis of putting relentless pressure on opponents and wearing them down.

"Of course things don't always go our way. At the World Cup in 2010 we were hot favourites but in the first game we lost to England - for the first time in 28 years! However, we came back and went on to win every game in that tournament. There is very much a strong sense of belief in the team that no matter what, we're always in with a good chance."

The 26-year-old heading towards the end of a Engineering/Commerce degree has been selected in every team that has won gold at the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and four consecutive Champions Tropics under Ric Charlesworth. He was with the Kookaburras at the Beijing Olympics and won a bronze medal.

The coach says Fergus is a core member of the national team because of his ability to be interchangeable on the field, moving from midfield to attack. The midfielder acknowledges that having played in every position on the field except goalkeeper has made him a good selection bet but he says he's most at home in defence, stopping his opponents from scoring.

The UWA graduate began playing hockey when he was eight and growing up in Geraldton. "I was drawn to the sport because it's a real game of finesse, so your technical skill is what matters rather than the fact that you are six foot."

Following in his older brother's footsteps - Tom was also in the State's under 15s and 18s and 21s - Fergus began to play in national championships, a commitment that saw his supportive dad driving him down to Perth for training sessions twice a week.

After graduating from high school, Fergus moved to Perth to enrol at UWA and pursue his hockey. He pays tribute to both the University and the Kookaburras for helping him juggle the demands of sport and study.

A Fogarty Foundation Scholarship provided invaluable support, he says, and academics were on side if an exam had to be deferred. "My coaches also appreciated that at exam times, training sessions had to be missed, so I had great all-round support," he recalls.

"I found that being involved in study and sport in an intense way actually suited me. When I was studying really hard, a hockey training session was a great escape and if I wasn't training well, my studies gave me something to focus on. If I had had one without the other I don't think I would have excelled in both."

Fergus is currently focusing entirely on hockey in the run-up to the Olympics. Having made the Olympic team he'll put off considering his work options until after the games are over. Having a major in Ocean Engineering, he'd like to get involved in exploring the use of the ocean as a source of renewable energy. Another option would be to become a professional player, which would mean moving to the Netherlands, Spain or Germany to play in the European league.

Fergus acknowledges that there are huge expectations on teams and players with the approach of the Olympics.

"What I have learnt about hockey at major tournaments is that once you start the game you lose yourself in the moment and forget about expectations. All the practice and training kicks in. But yes, the pressure is considerable, and that's when being disciplined about your training and your focus is so important."

No doubt Fergus's experience at successfully juggling study and hockey will serve as a model for another UWA student Tristan Clemons, who is currently in the Kookaburras development squad.

Working off-field to support Australia's elite hockey players in the WA Institute of Sport are UWA graduates Peter Peeling (working with the Men's and Women's WAIS hockey programs), physiologists Ted Polglaze and Claire Rechichi, and PhD student Martyn Binnie who is researching the physiological outcomes of training on sand. He is supervised by Winthrop Professor Brian Dawson of UWA's School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health.

Published in Uniview Vol. 31 No. 2 Winter 2012