The Combined Catholic College (CCC) Hockey Championships will be held at the New England Hockey Centre from today (Wednesday) until Friday.

Twenty-three schools from across the state are participating with more than 50 teams entered.

Teams compete in seven different competitions - open boys and girls A and B, under 16 boys and under 16 girls A and B.

It is the first time that the tournament has been staged locally.

O’Connor has entered four teams in the championships and will contest the open boys A, open girls B, under 16 boys and under 16 girls B competitions.

The local school boasts CCC representatives Kyle Eichorn and Alexander Frost among its ranks, as well as past rep players Bernard Fittler, Brook Hockley, Caleb Dobos, J P Shanahan and Ben Horsley.

Frost and Eichorn were named in the representative side in March.

Carnival convenor Denise Fittler said O’Connor had a strong history in the competition.

“The boys made the open A final last year,” she said.

“And in 2006 the under-16 B girls actually won.”

With only one city side scheduled to attend, Fittler said some of the other regional areas would be teams to watch.

“Bathurst are always strong, they won both the girls competitions last year, as well as Grafton and Lismore.

“But we’ll be very competitive.”