By Troy Peters
Guyana will be fielding a girls’ team for the first time at the Junior Pan American Hockey championships next month in Barbados and Philip Fernandes, President of the Guyana Hockey Board and head coach of the squad believes participation in the tournament will support the development of the sport locally.
Fernandes said that while it is a fairly young team, the Board decided to provide exposure to the new squad of players in the World Cup qualifiers to be held from April 10-18 at the National Hockey Centre in Barbados.
According to Fernandes, Guyana senior women have had creditable success at the international level dating back to the 70s and until recently moving up 20 places in the international ranking but for the game to continue its growth the young players now have to start their progress it regional competition.
“The Junior Pan Am is held every two years now but was affected by Covid-19 so there will be back to back tournaments this year and next year and it is ideal to have our girls play in this competition because of the close proximity of the event in Barbados,” he added.
“We never had junior women competing internationally and this is a first for us. Most of these young players started playing in the Board’s Junior I-Kool sponsored tournament we started at the school level for Under-11 and Under-14 players a few years ago,” he added.
Fernandes said the tournament was discontinued due to the pandemic, but is set to resume this year. “We look forward to resuming the tournament soon for it will provide impetus to push the juniors programme forward.”
The GHB President believes the number of girls playing the sport is still very low and he said the Board is taking steps to correct this shortage. He urged clubs to have a more aggressive approach in recruiting young players.
A few members of the squad would have played internationally with the senior team but according to Fernandes some of the players will be playing on an artificial turf for the first time.
Guyana will compete in Pool B with Canada, Barbados and Chile while Pool a will feature Argentina, Uruguay and USA.
Guyana will face Canada in their opening encounter on April 11, to be followed by a clash against hosts Barbados the following day while their third Pool B match will be against Chile on April 14.
The teams in Pool A are Argentina, Uruguay and United States of America (USA).
Fernandes is assisted by Canadian-based Guyanese Jonathan Roberts, a former player of the Canadian national team.
Guyana will also be fielding a men’s team at the championships
