The National women’s hockey squad preparing for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games will travel to neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados for warm up tournaments in May and June.
National hockey coach and president of the Guyana Hockey Board, Philip Fernandes, who recently returned from a high performance coaching course in New Delhi, India, told Stabroek Sport that the training of the local squad has intensified.
“The squad will be trimmed soon, we intend to name the players as well as three reserves, who will continue training,” Fernandes said.
He said there is a selection panel in place which includes himself as head coach, Rawl Davson (assistant coach) and Gregory Sills in addition to a few of the senior players currently training with the squad.
“We have included a few of the senior players because we don’t want it to be left up to us, it is a little unorthodox but we want them to play a part in the selection process, said Fernandes.
He disclosed that the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) has received funding from Olympic Solidarity especially for women’s hockey development and the grant will cover half the cost of the trip to the CAC Games as well as the warm up matches.
Fernandes said the board will seek sponsorship from local businesses as well.
“We plan to travel to Trinidad in May and Barbados in June for the warm up matches,” he added.
The GHB initially called up a squad of 30 players to train for the CAC Games which will be held in Puerto Rico at the end of July.
The players are training on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda.
Fernandes has just returned from a FIH Advance level coaching course in India held March 6 – 10.
The facilitators were FIH Master Coach Tayyab Ikram of Macau who was assisted by Argentine FIH Master Coach Rodolfo Mendoza and FIH Grade One coaches Herman Kruis of Germany and Tahir Zaman of Pakistan.
Fernandes said that in addition to the core facilitators, participants on the course were exposed to presentations by several top coaches, some of whom were the head coaches responsible for the teams that participated in the just concluded men’s hockey World Cup which coincided with the course.
“There was a lot of information to absorb in a short time, and I can appreciate why the top teams travel with an extensive coaching staff as it is virtually impossible for one or two coaches to identify all the nuances of the opposition and their planned strategies during the match,” he added.
According to Fernandes, he has indicated his renewed enthusiasm for the task and hopes to apply much of what he learnt in India to this task.
Apart from his national duty, Fernandes hopes to repeat the effort last year of facilitating a hockey coaching workshop for local coaches where he can hopefully pass on the newly acquired ideas and knowledge.
He expressed sincere gratitude to the Guyana Olympic Association for covering the cost of the airline ticket which was a substantial part of the overall cost.