Fernandes responds to questions on ladies performance at the CAC Games

Sep 01, 2010 Sports

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National Ladies Hockey Coach Philip Fernandes in an interview on the National Ladies team performance at the Central American & Caribbean Games gave the following answers.
Guyana Ladies finished sixth in the eight-team tournament and the Coach rated the team’s performance as commendable in light of the absence of an artificial pitch and the lack of international exposure.

Here are the responses offered by Fernandes to the questions.
How do you feel about the team’s performance at the Games?
Given all the circumstances the team performed very well and placed higher than expected.  There are so many factors to consider and it is difficult to discuss them all without it sounding like just a list of reasons not to medal.
However, when we consider that our team was unranked going into the tournament and only were permitted because of the withdrawal of Cuba from the games, we were not expected to win any matches at all.
In the competition we lost two out of the five matches we played, one of them to the eventual gold medallists, Trinidad and Tobago and the other a heart-breaking 0-1 loss to 3rd ranked Jamaica in the 5th & 6th placement match.
We were very competitive in the tournament and except for Trinidad, who were clearly the better side when we played, we could have won against all other opponents on our day.  We were the only team in the tournament without an artificial pitch in our home country and being by far the most inexperienced team, were the only team to not have one single player who ever competed in a Pan American level tournament.
I was disappointed not to place 5th after seeing the level of competition and knowing our capabilities, but 6th out of 8 teams is a good start when we were expected to be at the bottom.  I am happy with the result and even happier knowing that, with a continuation of our programme we could achieve an even better one the next time around.
How would you summarise this performance versus previous ones?
Since ladies hockey had died right out in the eighties and nineties, our return to international hockey began in 2005.  So far this generation of players have only competed in three competitions, one in 2005, one in 2007 and now in 2010.  Of the three, this was by far the best that we have played and has produced our best results.  The last time we played Trinidad and Barbados in an international was 2007 for example and we were beaten quite easily by them both.  On this occasion we managed to draw with Barbados and although losing to Trinidad by 5 – 1, it was better than the 8 – 0 in 2007.  Also to keep the performance in perspective, it is worth noting that Trinidad beat Mexico by 4 – 0 in the final so they were quite a bit better than all the other teams in the competition.
What were the greatest difficulties in preparing and competing in the games?
We of course have the huge disadvantage of being the only team to compete without having an artificial surface on which to train.  That affects us in a number of ways.  Firstly, we train on grass and concrete, but neither surface can duplicate the same response to the ball as an artificial pitch.  The ball travels at a difference speed and bounce on each surface and that always requires some adjustment.  The second factor is that an artificial pitch can be used in any weather.  During the rainy months leading up to the tournament when our grass fields were water-logged we were forced indoors to the National Gymnasium which lacked the necessary space to conduct the tactical exercises that were required at the time.  Thankfully, we were able to secure some Saturday morning practices at the National Stadium which helped a great deal.  As you can imagine though, with all the other teams training on a full size artificial hockey pitch and us training on a basketball court, the disadvantage is tremendous.
What was the experience of the games like for such a new team?
I don’t think that any athlete can fully prepare themselves for the mental aspect of their very first multi-sport Games.  In our case, this team never even had the opportunity to compete in a Pan American level tournament which would have exposed them to a large number of teams and players who they may only have seen in video or read about in a magazine.  It is a wonderful experience for young people and I think the girls would have benefited from, and enjoyed, the exposure both socially and on the playing field.
The team spent a lot in preparation with two weekend overseas training camps in the months preceding the tournament, how beneficial were they?
The camps in Trinidad and Barbados were very crucial for us to properly prepare for the games.  We were able to identify a number of shortcomings in our games and make several corrections and adjustments by the time we departed for Puerto Rico.  Locally we play of course on a different surface and competed against the men, which means that the level of opposition was very high and a bit difficult for the ladies.  In the training camps however, we were able to properly assess our level, determine which players are able to make immediate adjustments and solve problems on the pitch and which needed more time to adjust.
At the end of the CAC Games, the coach of Barbados paid us a compliment that sums up the training camps nicely.  He said jokingly that while they were happy to host us, they are not going to risk it again before any other international as the adjustments we made almost knocked them out of the medal round.
What was the high point and low point of the tournament for you?
The high point of the tournament was our drawn match against Barbados.  I knew that Barbados would be one of the top three teams in the tournament and just four weeks earlier they had beaten us by 6-0 and 4-0 margins during our training camp there.  While we trained rigorously on the areas of our game that needed improvement it would be ambitious of us to expect a good result.  Our players, however, showed their ability and mental strength in that match by raising the level of their performance and sticking to the task.  Despite not winning the match, which ended in a 1-1 result, I was very proud of our team’s performance which was beyond everyone’s expectations.
The experience of being a part of the opening ceremony of multi-sport Games is incomparable.  I am sure that the team will always remember what it feels like to be a celebrity for a short while as crowds of people line up just to cheer you on.
The single low point was losing to Jamaica when I thought we were the better side.  We should have completed the tournament with just the one loss to gold-medallists, Trinidad.
What is next on the women’s hockey calendar?
We were very fortunate to benefit from an Olympic Solidarity Grant during this Olympic cycle which afforded us the opportunity for the very first time to compete at the CAC Games.  It was this grant that also made it possible for us to have the vital overseas weekend training camps in preparation.  The difficulty now is to maintain our international ranking and improve on our performance.  The Pan American Hockey Federation has not yet released its newest rankings which will certainly see Guyana jump several places as a result of our performance at the CAC Games; our goal is to increase that ranking with every competition that we enter.  Of course it costs a great deal to compete internationally and we cannot afford the luxury of travelling often for international friendly matches as so many of the regional teams do.  While we were able to visit Trinidad and Barbados for weekend trips for example over the last few months, Trinidad visited Chile for one week and Barbados spent a similar amount of time in England both in preparation for the same Games as us.
While we have closed the gap a bit this year on many of the regional teams and have surpassed others, between now and the next time we can afford to travel and compete, all the other nations are likely to have played several more international matches.  This makes the task doubly hard for us and underlines the need for us to make every effort to compete as often as we can.
The next international competitions scheduled on the Pan American Calendar are the Caribbean Cup, which is expected to be in 2011, and the Pan Am Challenge which is set for early in 2012.  The Caribbean Cup is a four-national tournament between the teams from the English-speaking Caribbean, Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica.  The Pan Am Challenge is a competition between the second tier nations of the Pan American region.  So this competition is not going to have the powerhouses of the Americas like Argentina, Canada, Chile etc but the nations whose ranking falls below the top 8.
The International Hockey Federation also has plans to implement a world series in the next couple of years which is pattered similarly to the football qualifiers for the world cup.  In this case, teams will play home and away matches with winners going forward to an inter-continental tournament.

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