THE Guyana Hockey Board has reduced its male national junior squad to 20 players as preparations intensify for the team’s participation in the Players Tournament, scheduled for Trinidad & Tobago, August 1-8. The final team will be selected at the beginning of July to take part in the tournament which is expected to attract teams from Pakistan and Mexico as well as the Caribbean.
This cycle of the national junior programme started in August of last year with the staging of an Under-19 development camp. A total of 37 players were then selected to form the national squad and have been in training since October 2014.
The programme made a successful start to its international duties on the developmental tour of Trinidad last December when they trained on the artificial turf and won three of their four matches against club side Paragon and Trinidad’s national junior squad.
This tour is the second phase of the two-year programme which is preparing the team that will represent Guyana at the Pan American Junior Championships scheduled for Toronto, Canada in May of next year. Apart from international tours, the squad will compete in local tournaments as a unit and individual players will be sent overseas to compete for foreign clubs to gain more exposure and experience.
The 20-man squad includes four newcomers who were not part of last year’s touring team in, Eleomar Silva, Meshach Sargeant, Troy Hodge and Isaiah Hope. The team will also be without the services of outstanding playmaker Jamarj Assanah who has aged out of the programme and the injured Omar Hopkinson, who were both part of last year’s team.
The squad reads: Mark Sargeant, Medroy Scotland, Kareem McKenzie, Keon McKenzie, Daniel Hooper, Shaquille Leung, Meshach Sargeant, Rosario Ramsammy, Eleomar Silva, Aroydy Branford, Andrew Stewart, Leon Bacchus, Stephon Sprosta, Deheron Wilkinson, Hilton Chester, Paramanand Dindial, Shemar Boston, Troy Hodge, Ato Greene and Isaiah Hope.