By Troy Peters
The Guyana Hockey Board has announced a squad of 18 players and two reserves for the Junior Pan American men’s hockey tournament to be played from April 10-18 at the Barbados National Hockey Centre.
The playoffs, organized by the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) will feature host Barbados, Guyana, United States of America, Canada, Argentina, Chile and Brazil with the winners going on to represent the region at the FIH Under-21 World Cup from December 5-16 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
National Under-21 men’s head coach Robert Fernandes said the next few weeks will be critical for the young side but said the confidence level is fairly high ahead of their Group qualifiers against the United States, Barbados and Canada.
Guyana will open their campaign against the USA on April 10 and then compete against host Barbados on April 11 and Canada two days later. The other Group will bring together regional powerhouse Argentina, Chile and Brazil.
According to Fernandes several of the players were training since January last year with the Senior National Squad but the Juniors training intensified in August last year.
“We prepared from August to December and then we took the players on a warm up tour in Barbados, the venue was intentional because it is the same turf that will host next month’s tournament, the players were very receptive to the exposure,” he added.
Fernandes said the players are responding well to the training and have been performing excellently against their senior counterparts in recent practice matches. He said the next few weeks of preparation will be critical to the squad and during the training session at the Georgetown Cricket Club turf Thursday evening, he reminded the players to remain focus to the task ahead.
The 18-man squad: Raoul Whittaker, Jamal Gaskin, Daniel Woolford, Jabari Lovell, Javid Hussain, Leroy Geer, Oshazay Savory, Quinn Tobin, Shakeem Fausette, Shaquon Favorite, Simeon Moore, Tahrea Garnett, Valdimir Woodroffe, Yonnick Norton, Baraka Garnett, Bandalall Persaud, Samuel Woodroffe and Warren Williams.
The standby players are Donnel Alleyne and Robert Marcus.
Fernandes is being assisted by John Abrahams, Marisha Fernandes Dwayne Scott and Devin Hooper. Theodore Henry is the physical trainer.
