Home Sports The fortunes of hockey in 2025: GHB plans to expand reach, Sport...
Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) President Philip Fernandes has shared with Guyana Times Sport plans to expand the playing of hockey throughout Guyana, but has said the GHB still faces challenges with facilities.
Fernandes said, “While we do have long-term aspirations of introducing the sport throughout Guyana, it is a sport that requires access to well-maintained grass fields in the absence of artificial grass fields. This creates a great challenge, as most of the fields in rural areas are utilised by cricket. As a result, the short-term goal is to expand the player base in and around the capital, and expand outwards organically.
“Hockey has gone as far as Uitvlugt, Linden and New Amsterdam in the past, and hopefully, we can revive the game at least in those areas over the next year or two.”
As he expounded on the GHB 2025 calendar of activities, Fernandes indicated that the international competitions would commence in March for the under-21 girls and boys, while the local competition would start on January 26 with the Bounty One-Day Championships.
“On the international calendar, we have our under-21 girls’ and boys’ teams attending the Junior Pan Am Challenge in Barbados in March. Those teams are trying to qualify for the next Junior Pan Am Games, which are scheduled for August in Paraguay. It would be a first Junior Pan Am for hockey if either qualifies,” Fernandes related.
“Our senior men’s and women’s teams will travel to the Dominican Republic in May to compete in the CAC qualifiers. A top-two finish in these qualifiers will earn them entrance to the next CAC Games in 2026, also in the Dominican Republic,” he disclosed.
Fernandes has revealed that, on the local scene, heavy focus would again be placed on the development of junior players with the ICool schools’ tournament and, later in the year, the national schools’ championships. He said the local calendar is set to start on January 26th with the usual Bounty one-day championships, which would be followed by the men’s, women’s, and second-division leagues.
A full calendar of local events, both indoors and outdoors, would be played, with the final event of the year being the staging of the 20th Anniversary Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Championships, which are anticipated to draw many foreign teams to visit Guyana at the end of November to compete.
At the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s year-end presser held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) last Saturday, Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jnr disclosed that the Hockey Federation would be installing a turf at the South Ruimveldt facility within the next two months, and it is expected that that would alleviate the GHB’s facility woes. He also disclosed that the Ministry would be assisting to make the facility more family-friendly.
The Minister said, “If you go into South right now, on Orealla Avenue, you will see a tarmac there just completed, and we just installed lights there too.
So, the Hockey Federation is going to be putting in a turf there within the next three weeks or so. They were able to get a (lot) in Orealla Street at South Ruimveldt Gardens. So, we built a basketball court, and we just built a tarmac. They got the turf donated from Canada. One of them, a Guyanese guy, actually was the captain of the team. He was able to get a turf donated. It’s already in the country. So, we’re waiting for three weeks for the concrete to cure. And once that’s done, they’re gonna be laying in the turf there, and they now have the lights. We intend to do some additional work around the space so that it can make it, maybe put in some crush and run to make it more friendly towards persons who are moving in, and turnstile access and stuff. So, within the next two months, you should be getting maybe an invitation to come and see them play hockey at the facility there.” (Omar McKenzie)
