Junior National Hockey team up the ante on preparation for Pan Am Championships

Mar 06, 2023 Sports

– Coach Fernandes pleased with team’s progress

By Rawle Toney

Guyana’s National U21 Men’s Hockey Team

Kaieteur News – Guyana will compete in the Men’s and Women’s Junior (U21) Pan Am Hockey Championship in Bridgetown, Barbados, April 10 – 17, and according to coach Robert Fernandes, based on the teams’ preparation, a good result is expected.

The men’s side will be grouped with Barbados, the USA and Canada in Pool B, while the women’s unit is set to face Barbados, Canada and Chile in Pool B of their competition.

Pool A for the men’s competition will come from Argentina, Chile and Brazil. In the women’s tournament, the USA, Argentina and Uruguay are in Pool A.

While the Guyanese men will feature on the tournament’s opening day against the USA, the women’s side take the field on Day Two (April 11) against Canada.

Also on April 11, Guyana’s men’s team will play their game of the tournament, facing off with Barbados.

National U21 Hockey Coach – Robert Fernandes

A clash with Canada on April 13 will wrap up the men’s team group play, where they will hope for a positive result that will see them being one of the two teams to play in the finals on April 17.

The women will play Barbados on April 12, followed by their final Pool B game on April 14 against Chile.

Appearing on Hits and Jams 94.1 Boom FM Radio yesterday, Coach Fernandes said the level of preparation that went into the men’s team should see them being considerably successful in Barbados.

Fernandes highlighted that the team has been in preparation mode for almost two years while pointing to their December tour of Barbados, where they played four games against the ‘Bajans’, drawing three and winning their final game.

“The early part of the preparation focused on the developmental side of things, because of a lot of these players, although they are very athletic and very talented, they had some technical flaws in the beginning,” Fernandes said.

According to Fernandes, “They had to learn to play as a unit, which is always difficult when you’re pulling together a side of youngsters who are accustomed to playing against each other. So we have to go through the group dynamics of people who are accustomed to being adversaries, working together for a common goal.”

Fernandes pointed to the team’s stint in Barbados last year, adding that “it helped to expose them to the actual conditions that they’re going to face next month.”

With the men’s team grouped with two of Pan Am Hockey’s powerhouses in Canada and the USA, Fernandes said his players are not fearful of their opposition.

“The group of players, we had to bring them down (to earth), because they think that there’s no other team in the world that could stop them. So we had to narrow their focus on the small things they need to do to beat these teams,” Fernandes said.

Meanwhile, the 2023 Junior Pan Am Hockey Championships will mark the first time the country will have a female team at the competition, as Fernandes labelled their participation as “an excellent step towards the development of the female game locally.”

“A lot of the former National players have gotten older or moved on to different things in life and this age group, especially girls who are looking for scholarships overseas and so on, these are the girls we’ll want to focus on at this time,” Fernandes noted.

Fernandes pointed out that a late decision by the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) to send the team to the Championships meant that they will have a late start to preparation, “They’ve been together a little over two months, but I think the experience will be great for them.”

Former National player John Abrahams will be Fernandes’ assistant Coach for the tournament that serves as a Qualifier for the 2023 Junior World Cups.