Long serving women’s national hockey coach Phillip Fernandes and men’s national coach Robert Fernandes participated in an Indoor High Performance Coaching Course held in Berlin Germany from February 5th-8th.
The programme, which was held during the 2018 Indoor Hockey World Cup, was conducted by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in conjunction with the European Hockey Federation (EHF).
According to an official release from the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), “The course was conducted by a team of eight FIH coaching mentors who mostly former top international players who have moved on to the coaching world and some of whom were coaches of successful international teams in the recent past. Along with the mentors, the participants of the course benefited from lectures given by current top international coaches.”
A thorough process was utilized to select the participants, which comprised national coaches from nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Canada, Jamaica, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malaysia.
In addition to presentations, the participants were assigned projects individually and collectively which comprised of match analysis, presentations and management of athletes during practical training sessions.
“Philip Fernandes who is also a certified Pan American Hockey Federation Coach received his FIH Level 3 coaching certificate on this occasion and recommendation for the FIH Final Course placing him among elite company of very few in the region,” the release stated.
Meanwhile, local leading umpire Devin Hooper has been placed on the FIH Promising list for Indoor Hockey.
“After his officiating assignments in the 2017 Indoor Pan American Championships held here in Georgetown Guyana, Hooper received the additional recognition of being promoted to the FIH Promising list for Indoor Hockey. This means that he is now being sought after by the International Federation as an umpiring talent to be developed for higher level competition.”
“Umpire Devin Hooper who had obtained his FIH badge back in 2008 is one of only two Guyanese to hold this prestigious status. This distinction approves an umpire as suitable to officiate in International competition. Guyana has never had an umpire reach the world class level for the sport and with this promotion, Hooper is likely to receive the much-needed attention and support to attain that level,” the release added.
