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GCC under-21 ladies to defend title in Trinidad
After making their impressive debut back in 2008 by winning the Magnolia’s
(Flashback)- Defending champions Flora GCC Spartans pose shortly after wining the title last year.
Indoor Hockey Championship on their first ever overseas tour, the Georgetown Cricket Club under-21 girls return this year as three-time defending champions.
Ever since that faithful 2008 tournament, Flora GCC Spartans as they are known have defended their title successfully in both 2009 and 2010.
The core of the team has now been playing together for quite some time together since they began competing in local tournaments back in 2006 when the average age was only 15.
The Spartans suffered many heartbreaking defeats in the early days as their senior opponents schooled them on how to lose gracefully.
It was not until April of 2008 that the Spartans put together their first victory in the Noble House Goals Galore handicap indoor championships where they showed marked improvement and glimpses of things to come.
Trinidad sits at the top of the rankings when it comes to indoor hockey in the Caribbean and so going there to compete was an ambitious undertaking by the young inexperienced group. While the matches were closely contested in 2008, the Spartans managed to secure their first overseas win in as many tries. They returned the following year and were not taken lightly as teams were determined to defend their reputation. The Spartans, however, repeated their victory then and once again in 2010, their closest competition was their semi-final matchup against Paragon which went down to penalty strokes.
The team having lost just one player due to the age barrier over the past three years, enters this year’s competition a bit depleted as their starting defensive duo, the Fiedtkou sisters are unavailable this year due to personal commitments. Young Dacia Woodroffe who made her debut in 2010 and Ashley DeGroot will secure their first starting roles this year in defence.
Team captain and inspirational leader Gabriella Xavier will play the vital midfield role, while her multitalented sister, Alysa, to whom much of the team’s success is attributed will anchor them in goal once again.
Dominique DeGroot and Samantha Fernandes round out a powerful strike force which is buffered by reserves Athena Seenanon, Stacey Sardinha, Sandy Seepersaud, Aliyah Gordon and Rebecca Xavier.
The Spartans play their first match of the competition tomorrow evening at 18:00hrs against the ‘Magnolias 1’ at the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
The team management comprises Manager Andrew Xavier, Coach Philip Fernandes and Chaperone Angelique DeGroot.
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