A national indoor selection is on Wednesday scheduled to travel to Toronto, Canada to compete in the upcoming Field Hockey Canada Invitational Indoor Hockey Tri-Nation Series, scheduled to be played from March 22 to 24.
Guyana had initially been hoping to enter male and female selections, as there is nothing else on the indoor hockey calendar internationally to prepare teams before the next Indoor Pan American Cup (IPAC) is held in March 2020 in Pennsylvania, USA.
However, Guyana encountered difficulties in managing to achieve the objective of having both male and female teams attend the Series, and it was decided that the male team would be unable to attend.
The ladies have been preparing at the National Gymnasium under the guidance of Head Coach Philip Fernandes since early in January. Eight of the twelve players are from the 2017 national team that competed in the IPAC, held for the first time in Guyana in 2017. Those players are goalkeeper Alysa Xavier, Marisha Fernandes, Trisha Woodroffe, Marzana Fiedtkou, Nicole Eastman, Gabriella Xavier, Minsodia Culpepper and Latacia Cheong.
The Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), in using this event as preparation for 2010 and beyond, have opted to give the opportunity to new, young players who show the potential to be good representatives of the country in the future. As a result, they have named their youngest-ever squad, which features — including the two reserves — 3 fourteen-year-olds, 2 fifteen-year olds, and others in their early twenties.
Coach Fernandes has lamented the loss of especially Aliyah Gordon due to injury, as he considers her to be one of those special players around whom the future of women’s hockey can be built. However, he is very excited at seeing several teenagers in the line-up, as he feels that they are among the most talented players he has seen in recent years in the women’s programme.
The Guyana team will face the Canadian National Team; a Canadian President’s 11; as well as the national team of Kazakhstan, which represented Asia in the last Indoor World Cup in Berlin. Fernandes indicated that the two countries, Canada and Kazakhstan, both boast far superior reputations in indoor hockey than does Guyana, and he has expressed great appreciation for the invitation from Field Hockey Canada, and their willingness to include Guyana in the series.
While Fernandes is cautiously optimistic of the Guyana team’s chances, he thinks it is exactly what the local ladies need at this very moment. The coach indicated that the young players need to be exposed to this level of tough competition, where they can see, experience and appreciate indoor hockey; its toughness, and the level of physical and skilful play required to be at the top.
His only regret is that, during preparation, the team was unable to train on the tile floor housed at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, as the multi-sport facility would not have been able to accommodate the floor being in place for these months. He, however, appreciates having been allowed to use the gymnasium, which although having a different and slower mat surface, still allowed the team to get through its training.
Matches in this Canadian tournament will all be played at the University of Toronto’s Athletic Centre, and will begin on Friday.
Guyana’s full squad reads: Abosaide Cadogan, Alysa Xavier, Gabriella Xavier, Marisha Fernandes, Trisha Woodroffe, Sarah Klautky, Latacia Cheung, Nicole Eastman, Minsodia Culpepper, Tekeisha Deleon, Marzana Fiedtkou and Makeda Harding.
The reserves for this squad, which will be managed by Tiffany Solomon, are Charlia Webb and Madison Fernandes.
Full schedule
Friday 22nd
12:00 – Guyana versus Kazakhstan
13:00 – Canada White vs Canada Red
15:30 – Kazakhstan vs Canada White
16:45PM – Guyana versus
Canada Red
Saturday 23rd
11:45 – Canada Red vs Kazakhstan
12:30 – Guyana versus Canada White
17:00 – Women’s semi-final 1 vs 4
17:45 – Women’s semi-final 2 vs 3
Sunday 24th
14:00 – Women’s bronze medal match
14:45 – Women’s Final
