National Under-21 men’s hockey team coach, Darren Cowie says his team’s title chances at the Junior Pan American Hockey Championship, a qualifier to the Federation International Hockey Junior World Cup, will depend heavily on the overseas-based duo, Teague Marcano and Liam Nieves.
The Junior Pan American event was carded for April but due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has now been rescheduled to August in Santiago, Chile.
The England-based Marcano is attached to Investec Premier League club Hampstead & Westminster, the same club as former-T&T captain and local legend Kwandwane Browne, while Nieves, who resides in Perth, Australia attends Corpus Christi College and is attached to The Old Aquinians Hockey Club, commonly called “Reds Hockey Club”.
Speaking on Sunday after his training squad played its third practice match of the year, a 3-3 draw with a senior national men’s selection at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex, Cowie, a former national hockey captain as well said he was very satisfied with his core of players under his command at present with four other players absent inclusive of Nieves (Australia-based), Marcano (England-based), Zeon Hamilton (Defence Force recruit), and Ghardel Elcock (Coast-Guard recruit).
He added, “Hamilton and Elcock have been involved in the game locally for a while, and at the same time I am very upbeat and excited about what Nieves and Marcano, both with hockey in their blood, can add to the squad. They (Marcano and Nieves) will, without doubt, raise the standard of play as Teague (son of former T&T players Lisa Hernandez and Albert Marcano), is already showing a lot of leadership qualities when we have our virtual video sessions, as he is sometimes the one taking the lead role."
He said, “Liam, is the son for former Fatima and national team standout, Dean Nieves and they have been living in Australia for quite some time, but both his parents are from here and we are very pleased with what we have seen of him on video clips from matches with his club and school teams."
Concerning the readiness of his team for the competition which was originally carded for April but has been pushed back to August 16-29 by the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) as it understands, that COVID-19 still has a big impact in the region, Cowie said his team is ready as can be. “We were planning for the tournament in April, so we had to fast track our preparations and work mainly on match tactics and skipped out a lot of the basic stuff that we would normally implement at the start of the training programme. However, with the tournament now being pushed back to August, which we are hoping will actually come off, it gives us the chance to slow down our preparations and spend more time on each aspect of the programme."
Cowie also praised the players for taking up the responsibility of doing most of the physical aspect of their training on their own as the Elite Performance and Development Unit (EDPU) Training Facilities at the Hasely Crawford Stadium is a bee-hive of activity with national athletes who are preparing for the Olympic Games.
Cowie explained that: “Due to the protocols put in place by the EDPU because of the coronavirus only five persons are allowed to use the facility per session, and we have a lot of Olympic athletes at home in training and they must be given priority. We also have a large number of athletes, over 20 to be exact, and then when you have to factor in that some of them are attending school while others have work commitments as well, it's easier for them to do their gym work personally.
Outside of that we will continue with our sessions at the Woodbrook Youth Facility on Thursdays from 6 pm to 8 pm and on Saturday mornings at Diego Martin Sports Complex, between 6 am and 8 am while Sundays are reserved for our warm-up matches.”
He pointed out that with respect to any health guidelines being put in place for the tournament, according to the latest tournament update from PAHF it stated it was already working on a document that will serve as the framework for the safe return to competition. The evolution of the covid-19 impact continues to be very dynamic so we will continue updating our document and work with the host country to inform in due time about the protocols and requirements to enter Chile.
T&T Under-21 Hockey Training Squad:
Malcolm Baptiste (goalkeeper), Johnathan Afong (goalkeeper), Leumas Neptune (goalkeeper), Adam Perriera, Tarell Singh, Sheldon De Lisle, Ethan Reynos, Tyrese Benjamin, David Coker, Jeshurun Drayton, Jeremy Nieves, Caleb Guissepi, Matthew Newallo, Jacques Poon-Lewis, Justin Beharry, Tariq Singh, Jovan Wren, Matthew Perriera, Aidan Marcano, Shawn Phillip, Joel Daniel, Roshane Hamilton, Nicholas Whiteman, Liam Nieves (Australia-based), Teague Marcano (England-based), Zeon Hamilton (Defence Force recruit), 27. Ghardel Elcock (Coast-Guard recruit).
Technical staff: Darren Cowie (head coach), Akim Toussaint (assistant coach), Sharon De Freitas (manager), Chemika Ellis (assistant manager), Alexandria Olton (psychologist), Amanda George (assistant coach).
Training matches results:
Match #1:
T&T Under-21 1 (Matthew Perriera) vs T&T Men’s XI 1 (Jordan Vieira)
Match #2:
T&T Under-21 1 (Nicholas Whiteman) vs T&T Men’s XI 3 (Daniel Byer, Roger Daniel-2)
Match #3:
T&T Under-21 3 (Jovan Wren, Aidan Marcano, Nicholas Whiteman) vs T&T Men’s XI 3 (Daniel Byer-2, Tariq Marcano)