TOP national women’s hockey club, GCC Tigers, are set to debut in the Trinidad and Tobago National Women’s League for 2015 beginning today, in a first-ever appearance for a Guyanese team in the competition. The local Bourda ladies have dominated local competition since 2008, winning virtually every competition both indoor and outdoor on the local calendar since then.
Their local success has prompted the club’s management to seek opportunities for competition further afield in order to further challenge the team.
In 2014 the club applied to the Federation of the Twin-island Republic, since they boast one of the highest levels of women’s hockey in the region, for its women’s team to compete in their outdoor season.
After some deliberation, the Guyanese side was accepted and will create history as the first hockey club to participate in the annual season of a foreign country.
While this will be new territory for the GCC ladies, many of them have participated in Trinidad before while wearing national colours.
They are familiar with the competition and many of the players in the Trinidadian league and look forward to testing their skills against the region’s best.
The GCC ladies begin the competition with a gruelling 5-match weekend beginning today with GCC taking on Ventures from 18:30hrs at the Eastern Regional Sports Centre in Trinidad.
This match will be followed by two matches tomorrow against Magnolias and Paragon then two more on Sunday against Notre Dame and Checkers.
According to coach Philip Fernandes, the schedule had to be packed as tightly as possible in order to save costs.
The team, of course, will have to bear their own cost of travelling to Trinidad on three separate occasions to complete the 12-match season.
Fernandes indicated that it was a huge opportunity for the ladies to compete in this competition as all matches will be staged on the artificial hockey pitch in Trinidad.
The coach posited that while the Guyanese ladies will be giving up much in terms of experience on the surface, this was the only way at the moment for them to improve in such conditions as hockey in Guyana is only played on grass.
He further opined that while it would be ambitious to expect a victory at the end of the competition, he is hopeful that they can be competitive in all of their matches.