With Guyana already being represented well at the start of 2017, the 2016 season of hockey was described as one of mixed fortunes. This was the opinion shared by President of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), Philip Fernandes.
Guyana Hockey Board President, Philip Fernandes
According to Fernandes, the year was deemed good but had its fair share of difficulties. “We had a good year last year but I think there were some downsides to it,” he stated.
One of the major accomplishment of the year was “the hosting of more junior competitions which were excellent, the clubs themselves were excellent. With the encouragement of the board, each of the major clubs held their own competition and all of them had a junior feature so we have a lot more children playing the game, a lot more under-10, U-14, U-17, U-19.”
The GHB President related that this is one of the crucial parts of the sustainability of any sport. “This is favourable for the sport because that broadens the base significantly,” Fernandes said.
Looking back at the year’s activities, one of the main competitions was the Lucozade Indoor Hockey Tournament which he praised for giving the players “several weeks of continuous indoor hockey, something that has never been done before on the local circuit.” In addition to that, the junior boys’ team in May took part in the Junior Pan-Am Games in Toronto where they performed exceptionally well.
“We had our junior boys’ team going in May to the Junior Pan Am competition in Toronto and they played very well. They finished close to the bottom but they did win a few matches and every single match even against the top teams they competed and looked as if they belong on the field,” Fernandes highlighted.
However, while indoor hockey gathered some favourable success, outdoor hockey suffered as a result of the packed indoor schedule.
“The downside of the year was that our outdoor season was cut short. We didn’t get to complete the outdoor tournaments as we usually do. The weather was a factor, the availability of grounds was also a factor but also I think the focus on other things threw us off a bit,” Fernandes noted.
Nevertheless, Fernandes is of the view that in 2017, this will be remedied and this year both forms of the beautiful sport will be given equal opportunity.
“I think going into 2017 we will discuss this and we will prepare better. We have a few more young people coming forward from the administrative end and giving us some good support and I think we will have the competence among our officials to be able to successfully pull off both. We continue the junior development; we continue the indoor and still get the outdoor going well,” President Fernandes stated.
