Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 09, 2013 Sports
By Sean Devers
The National Women’s Hockey team recently returned from Canada where they participated as the Guest team in the Canadian National Championships in June and team Coach Phillip Fernandes said the girls gained valuable experience despite losing all six of their games.
The 16-member Guyanese team, which will be lead by Chantelle Fernandes, will journey to Argentina on September 18 for the Pan American Hockey Championships which commences on September 21.
This competition is for the top eight teams in the Americas but according to Fernandes, who is also the President of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), although Guyana is not among the top eight teams in the Americas, the ladies have been included due to their improving performances.
Fernandes feels that while he does not expect to Guyana to win the tournament he feels the ladies have a chance to improve their rakings if they manage to win one or two matches.
Four of the players are currently overseas including the Captain. Two are on Hockey scholarships, while the other two are employed overseas. Guyana is grouped with Argentina, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.
“We hope to improve our rakings to qualify for tournaments like the CAC games by winning a few games in Argentina where we will be the lowest ranked team. Our main goal is to improve our rankings but it will be tough to beat some of the top teams as the underdogs, but I am confident that we could do better than we did in Canada,” Fernandes informed.
Fernandes is credited with helping to raise the standard of female Hockey in Guyana since taking over as National Women’s Coach in 2006. He says the laying of the artificial practice turf at GCC should greatly improve local Hockey since both the males and female teams will be exposed to its use.
“We put down the sand based pitch (mat) about two weeks ago and it’s not yet fully ready but because of time constraints we invited the Women’s team to practice on it. It’s about the size of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and the turf we will play on in Argentina is similar to the one here,” Fernandes explained.
He disclosed that the artificial mat cost $3 Million and added that he is aiming for an official opening shortly when the club installs Flood lights at the practice facility.
“We can generate funds for maintenance by renting the practice facility to the four Hockey clubs in the City since this pitch can be used in any weather and should last for 10-15 years,” Fernandes said.
“The only problem here is because of the size of the practice facility when you go on the ground which is a lot larger, you have to use a different technique but all in all I believe this is good for the development of local Hockey,” Fernandes revealed.
The Coach said this will be his last year with the National Women’s team since he is of the view that the need to inject new blood with fresh ideas is critical to upward mobility of the sport.
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