Despite the challenges, female hockey on the rise

Dec 13, 2012 Sports

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– Next stop PAHF Cup in Argentina

Women’s hockey has been on the rise for the past three to four years and even though Guyana as a country has not been able to make a significant mark as yet regionally or internationally, there is no doubt that the sport has become more visible and has enjoyed a fair measure of success, particularly the women’s segment, over the period.
The national women’s hockey team recently participated in the World League which was staged in Trinidad and Tobago and Kaieteur Sport posed a few questions to Head Coach Philip Fernandes and here are his responses.
KN-Describe the World League and what it means to participate.

PF-The Hockey World League is the first truly global competition for hockey which therefore provides an opportunity for all nations to be recognized worldwide on the international stage.  The World League takes place every two years and begins with all teams competing in their local regions with the top finishers moving onto the second round of four.  In the case of Guyana, we were therefore invited to compete in a tournament staged in Trinidad which involved other teams of this region.  Throughout the year this takes place in several different parts of the world and rounds will continue until the field is narrowed to the final eight teams.  Aside from the prestige of winning this event, the final placements will be used in the future to determine those who qualify for the Hockey World Cup and Olympics.
This was the first time ever that Guyana has been represented in a world level tournament as previously our international meets have all been Caribbean or Pan American based.  Although our team was very inexperienced and new to this level of competition, it was a tremendous experience for them to be there and extremely valuable to have Guyana make an appearance in such a high profile event.
KN-What were your expectations at this tournament and were you satisfied with the result?
PF-We went into the tournament with the full understanding that the level of competition would be very high and the likelihood of qualifying to the second round was pretty difficult.  Our World ranking going into the tournament was 58, tied for the bottom place in the tournament with Venezuela, while we would be competing against teams ranked as highly as 23 in the world.  We spent a lot of time and effort in preparation so that we could at least produce the best performance possible given our limited resources here in Guyana.  Our primary goal is never to win the big tournaments as we are not yet at that level, but to improve our performance and give a better showing of hockey with every international competition.
We ended up finishing in 5th place out of 6 teams.  This result will improve our world ranking, but it was a little disappointing as we certainly dominated the possession during the games against Barbados and Venezuela and should have come out with a winning result on both occasions.  Our inability to convert scoring chances really hurt us, despite having more chances than our opponents.  Both of those matches resulted in 1-1 drawsand while we won the subsequent penalty shootout against Barbados, we lost the one against Venezuela.  The top three teams, Canada, Uruguay and Trinidad were beyond our reach as was evident by their large margins of victory nevertheless our matches against both Trinidad and Uruguay were more competitive than they were one year ago.KN-What are the major factors preventing a better performance for Guyana?
PF-There are three major factors that separate Guyana from most or all of the other teams competing in International hockey.  The first is our small pool to choose from.  There are only about 50 females playing hockey currently in Guyana.  This is a big problem and one that we hope to rectify through our recent focus on schools hockey and junior division competitions.  Countries like Canada and Uruguay have over 5,000 females playing the game, while Trinidad, Venezuela and Barbados have somewhere between 200 to 500 players.
The second major factor is the lack of an artificial pitch on which the game is played internationally.  Some 20 years ago, the FIH (Federacion Internacional de Hockey) made it mandatory for all international hockey matches to be played on an approved artificial grass surface.  Hockey therefore migrated from grass to artificial pitches in all, but the very few countries who could not afford such a pitch.  Of the more than 60 teams competing in the World League, only Guyana and Papau New Guinea do not have an artificial hockey pitch.  To train on grass and compete on artificial pitch successfully is extremely difficult as the game is completely different in terms of the skills used and the way the ball responds to the surface.  As a result of this difference, the performance of our team drops significantly every time they play their first match in any international tournament and improves slightly with every subsequent game.  Of course once a tournament is over then that familiarity is once again lost until the next time they travel to compete.
The third factor of course is the lack of funding for regular competition.  This is a problem that plagues many of our sports disciplines in Guyana and one that is not at all easy to solve.  Hockey in Guyana does not receive any external funding at all, neither from the International governing body or any other source.  This means that our players themselves usually have to raise all the money required to travel and compete.  The national women’s hockey team was fortunate enough to receive a substantial team support grant from Olympic Solidarity through the Guyana Olympic association back in 2010 and this provided a vital start to getting the women’s programme back on its feet.  Since then, the players have to find the time and effort to raise the necessary funds to compete internationally in addition to the rigorous training involved.  While other nations therefore can travel frequently to compete internationally or host visiting teams leading up to major events, Guyana can seldom afford that luxury.
KN-How does the Guyana Hockey Board intend to correct this situation?
PF-We have found that there are a lot of young people interested in playing sports in Guyana if presented the opportunity.  This has therefore been a shortcoming of our administration as we need to find a way then to provide the environment and opportunity for them to play.  The major impediment to doing this successfully has been a lack of human resources.  In the absence of a paid coach who can go into the school system and introduce and coach the game, we cannot increase the numbers in the way we would like.  Our local coaches all have jobs and this is another significant difference between Guyana and the other hockey-playing nations as they all have professional and semi-professional coaches even at the school level.  We have managed to secure the services of a few individuals who visit schools maybe once per week to conduct training sessions and this has had a positive effect already on the game, but we are trying to find a way to increase this to more schools.
The lack of an artificial pitch for hockey presents a catch 22 situation since the presence of a pitch itself is very likely to encourage players to the game as was evidenced by other hockey-playing nations like Uruguay and Venezuela.  The game is far more enjoyable on an artificial pitch and young players quickly experience greater success and therefore encouragement in the game.  An artificial pitch also can be used in any weather and so during the rainy months our players do not have to await a last minute decision to know whether or not training or matches are cancelled.  In fact since artificial pitches play better when they are wet, the Trinidad and Tobago Hockey Federation seriously considered moving their outdoor season to the rainy months.
We have made several attempts to petition for funding toward an artificial pitch with the most recent being during the Pan American Games in 2011 where the Pan American Hockey Federation held its Congress.  These so far have fallen on deaf ears and so we are left to defy the odds by trying to produce the kind of performances in international competitions that can attract some attention to our need.  This is a slow process, however, and a difficult game to win.
Hockey in Guyana will probably never have the kind of funding necessary for regular travel to gain valuable international exposure.  The next best thing, however, leads us back to having an artificial pitch installed locally.  While we always have to incur the expense of travel to train and compete on artificial surfaces, our neighbours enjoy the benefits of visiting teams which can afford them the same exposure at little or no cost.  Guyana is a relatively inexpensive destination for many of the countries in the Pan American region with competitive pricing for living expenses such as hotels, meals and transportation.  This coupled with our central geographic location makes Guyana an excellent destination for international teams.  The success of our annual Diamond Mineral Water International Indoor Hockey Festival is testament to the greater possibilities of sports tourism in Guyana.  We feel confident that given adequate facilities, we can transfer the success in hosting the indoor game to that of the more subscribed outdoor game.
KN-What is next for this team and for women’s hockey internationally?
PF-Despite the unlevelled playing field described above, our ladies have qualified for the PAHF Cup in September 2013 to be staged in Mendoza, Argentina.  They upset several higher ranking nations to qualify for this event and therefore deserve the opportunity.  However, this is a very expensive undertaking and they will be facing the top 7 teams in the Pan American region, including Argentina which is ranked #2 in the world.  Given our inability to prepare on the correct surface between now and then however, this remains an issue for much discussion over the next few weeks.  The players are very motivated and have shown great dedication to training over the past few years and their performance on the pitch has improved constantly.  This will need to be taken into consideration when the Guyana Hockey Board makes its final decision on the future.

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