The Guyana National Junior Men’s Hockey Team arrived in Toronto, Canada on Monday evening to take part in the Pan American Junior Championships, scheduled for May 20th to 28th.
The team settled into their accommodation at the University of Toronto grounds and had a taste of the cold temperature on their early morning jog and stretching session on Tuesday, under the guidance of physical trainer Barrington Browne. The team was scheduled to have their first practice session on one of the University’s two artificial turfs, at 3:30pm yesterday afternoon. The team is also scheduled to play a practice match today against a selection of senior Toronto club players, before their final practice session on Thursday, with the tournament scheduled to start on Friday.
Three of the team’s most experienced players, Hilton Chester, Kareem McKenzie and Daniel Hooper will join the team on Thursday evening, after completing some of their CXC and CAPE exams. The team is schedule to take on the tournament’s third seed on Friday at 3:00pm, then Mexico on Saturday at the same time before playing second seed Canada on Monday at 5:30pm. According to head coach Robert Fernandes “We will use these first few days to get the boys comfortable with their surroundings, acclimatized to the conditions and adjusted to playing on the turf. We usually get better as tournaments wear on and we adjust to the faster pace of play that the turf allows. So hopefully by arriving here early and having three sessions on the surface we will be firing on all cylinders by Friday.”
Local fans will be able to stream the matches live on the www.panamhockey.org website.
National Junior Men’s Hockey Team:
Mark Sargeant (Cap), Medroy Scotland (GK), Michael Hing (GK), Kareem McKenzie, Keon McKenzie, Daniel Hooper, Shaquille Leung, Meshach Sargeant, Rosario Ramsammy, Aroydy Branford, Andrew Stewart, Leon Bacchus, Jael Gaskin, Omar Hopkinson, Hilton Chester, Ato Greene, Paramanand Dindial, and Nyron Joseph.
Manager – Hubert Forrester
Coaches – Robert Fernandes, Dwayne Alleyne and Marvin Dannett
Physical Trainer – Barrington Browne
(Reprinted: Guyana Times)
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