In light of Guyana’s participation in the Pan American (Pan Am) Junior Championship games in the discipline of Hockey last year, the sport’s governing body, the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), has embarked on early preparations ahead of the Pan Am Games 2020.
Like the Olympics, the Pan Am Games are hosted every four years, but this is not an excuse for the local hockey fraternity to commence training and the group took to the St Stanislaus College Ground, Carifesta Avenue, for a one-day outdoor tournament over the weekend.
Action last weekend at the St Stanislaus College Ground
According to one of the coaches in the tournament, Robert Fernandes, this tournament is one of the early training grounds for new talent.
Fernandes said “This is the start of the outdoor hockey season and what we did is start with some developmental leagues.”
The tournament is played under two divisions, with both having male and female at the under-18 level.
It is particularly important that it is the first time in the history of the sport that there is a second-division female category, as Fernandes stated that “the intention of this tournament is to use these leagues to develop the players, the younger payers and the ones that are new to the game,” with the latter half of the season mainly focusing on the first-division season.
The tournament which will run for the next month, where every Saturday and Sunday will see most of the clubs using it to help develop their players and some of them will eventually be filtered into the first-division team.
Based on the preparations for the next Pan Am Championships, Fernandes alluded that, “The next junior Pan Am will be in 2020 so the intention why this tournament is under-18 because under-18 this year will be under-21 in 2020.”
Playing this past weekend, a lot of the players were newcomers to the sport and the coach noted that, “We are hoping from this we could spot some of the talented individuals and bring them into the national junior program to develop them for 2020.”
However, the tournament is not the only competition amidst the hockey realm, but rather the GHB is currently hosting an under-14 tournament in schools aimed at fostering talent for 2024.
