A NATIONAL indoor selection team is scheduled to travel today to Toronto, Canada to compete in the upcoming Field Hockey Canada Invitational Indoor Hockey Tri-Nation series, scheduled for March 22 to 24.

Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) was initially hoping to enter male and female teams, as there is nothing else on the indoor hockey calendar internationally, to prepare teams before the next Indoor Pan American Cup (IPAC) being held in March 2020 in Pennsylvania.
There were some difficulties in managing to achieve both, especially on the male side, and so the men will be unable to attend.

The ladies have been preparing since early January at the National Gymnasium under the guidance of head coach Philip Fernandes.
Eight of the twelve players remain from the 2017 national team who competed in the IPAC held for the first time in Guyana in 2017.

Those players are goalkeeper Alysa Xavier, Marisha Fernandes, Trisha Woodroffe, Marzana Fiedtkou, Nicole Eastman, Gabriella Xavier, Minsodia Culpepper and Latacia Cheong.
The GHB, in using this event as a preparation for 2020 and beyond, has opted to give the opportunity to new, young players who show the potential to be good representatives of the country for the future.

As a result, it has named its youngest-ever squad which features two reserves, three 14-year-olds, two 15-year-olds and others in their early twenties.

Coach Fernandes has lamented the loss of Aliyah Gordon due to injury, as he considers her to be one of those special players around whom the future of women’s hockey can be built.
Fernandes, however, is very excited by the several teenagers in the line-up as he feels that they are among the most talented players we have seen in recent years in the women’s programme.

The team will face Canada’s national team, a President’s XI as well as the national team of Kazakhstan, who represented Asia in the last Indoor World Cup in Berlin.

Fernandes indicated that the two countries, Canada and Kazakhstan, boast far superior reputations in indoor hockey than Guyana and he expressed great appreciation for the invitation from Field Hockey Canada and their willingness to include Guyana in the series.
While Fernandes is cautiously optimistic of his team’s chances, he thinks that it is exactly what the local ladies need at this very moment.

He indicated that the young players need to be exposed to this level of tough competition where they can see, experience and appreciate indoor hockey, its toughness and the level of physical and skilful play required to be at the top.

Fernandes’ only regret during preparation was that players were unable to train on the tiled floor at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, as the multi-sport facility would not have been available for these months.

He, however, was appreciative for the use of the gymnasium, which, although has a different and slower matt surface, allowed the team to get through its training.
Matches will all be played at the University of Toronto’s Athletics Centre and will begin on Friday, March 22.

The full Guyana squad reads:
Abosaide Cadogan
Alysa Xavier
Gabriella Xavier
Marisha Fernandes
Trisha Woodroffe
Sarah Klautky
Latacia Cheung
Nicole Eastman
Minsodia Culpepper
Tekeisha Deleon
Marzana Fiedtkou
Makeda Harding
Reserves: Charlia Webb and Madison Fernandes
Coach: Philip Fernandes
Manager: Tiffany Solomon