Youth, experience key in Pizza Hut GCC title defence

GHB/Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival…

By Romario Samaroo

The 13th edition of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival is set for November 24-27 at the home of Indoor Hockey, the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue and five time champions in the female division, Pizza Hut GCC are pumped and ready to defend their title.
The Regent Road based team has remained undefeated in the last two tournaments prior to this, and feel that with their core comprising of experienced leaders and a number of fast, talented youths, their chances of maintaining a perfect 2016 season is very much on the cards.
Speaking with Guyana Times Sport, Captain of the top local side, Tiffany Soloman said it was a very good year for the team with a lot of the players developing well and the wins giving them the encouragement to defend their title against some strong local and international teams.
“I think this win has given us a lot of momentum heading into the Diamond Mineral Water in two weeks time where we play teams we don’t usually play coming in from Canada and the USA so we really have to come together and work on our bases, make sure our bases are strong and hope our game plan works out but I think we are pretty confident going in and I hope it will go our way,” she said.
Talking on the teams locally, Solomon explained that her side is lucky to have such a dominant run, nevertheless, the experience and practice was well received heading into the challenge of the internationally exposed teams.
“As you know there is not a lot of local tournament so we have been lucky enough to be dominant in the local scene but in terms of the more exposed teams it will actually test us and it will probably make us play at a level we don’t usually play at because we are pretty confident at home but it will push us and we will really see what we are made of,” the captain related.
The team’s composition has been through some slight adjustments but the core remains the same and the girls have all been playing with each other for a number of months. Solomon indicated that this will be very beneficial to the team’s chances.

“We have a really good core of girls, some of the more older girls and some of the younger girls that have come up and I think they have really improved a lot so I think we have a really good depth within the team so I think a mix of the experience and the new young talent we have coming up will probably give us a good mix to hopefully win Diamond Mineral Water League. The youngest in the team is probably Aliyah Gordon who has been playing since she was probably 12 and she is a very fast striker and ball handler and we have Marzana Fiedtkou who is recently back from school, she is a very strong defender,” Solomon reiterated.
With three divisions in the festival, male, female and veterans, a total of 17 teams, including both local and international, have been confirmed to participate with time and space for more teams to join the festival. Registration fee per team in the male and female categories set at USD$400 while the veterans’ teams are required to pay US$200 each.
Returning to the tournament are four time winners, Canada’s Toronto Hockey who will be spare headed by past Most Valuable Player (MVP) on multiple occasions, Jonathan Roberts which includes gold medal winners from the Canadian team who participated in the last Pan American Cup in Uruguay.
Last year’s runners-up, Trinidad and Tobago’s Queens Park Hockey Club (H.C.) and debutants, Ball Washers out of Washington, USA will both be looking for success. Also in the mix are, 2012 winners Toronto Academy, Carib H.C., Malvern H.C. and the top local sides, Pepsi Hikers, Old Fort, Bounty GCC and others.
In action will be some of the big names for the local team including, Aliyah Gordon, Rebecca Xavier, Gabriella Xavier, Vanessa Peres, Kerensa Fernandes, Solomon, Nathalie Hing, Tricia Fiedtkou, Dacia Woodroffe, Carina Moller, Sonia Jardine and others.