For the first time ever junior hockey players in the U-13 and U-16 boys divisions from the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) in Trinidad will visit Guyana to enjoy friendly competition against the local youths.
The historic QPCC competition will commence today and concluded tomorrow with both indoor and outdoor action on the agenda. They will face off against their counterparts from GCC, Old Fort and Saints.
QPCC’s Junior Hockey Academy was founded by Rob Wyatt about five years ago with Darren Cowie (former National Captain) as the Head Coach of the programme. Following its founding, the club’s juniors have gone on to win a number of domestic national club titles.
“It [the visit to Guyana] is critical for the development of all our junior players in the region to gain some exposure to overseas competition.
“It gives us an opportunity to assess how our players are developing and to learn from other programmes in the region so that collectively hockey in the Caribbean region can continue to improve,” Wyatt said of the visit to Guyana. It is hoped that this is the start of more regular fixtures between Trinidad and Guyana with the Guyanese junior players reciprocating a visit to Trinidad later in the year.
Meanwhile, President of the Guyana Hockey Board Philip Fernandes, expressed similar sentiments about the visit, underscoring its importance to the development of the sport here.
“For the first time, the junior boys of this age group will be exposed to foreign competition which builds relationships and character along with bringing great motivation and excitement to the young players of Guyana.”
Fernandes was very complimentary of coaches Wyatt and Darren Cowie for initiating this tour.
He said that the clubs of Guyana are committed to making the effort to have the young Guyanese players pay a return visit to Trinidad to continue the exposure.
The visit is made possible by the Trinidad club’s sponsors C3 Centre, BMW Trinidad, Terra Caribbean, 10 Sixty One Consulting and Prosport Caribbean.
