Former national hockey goalkeeper and captain Glen “Fido” Francis is set for a swift return to the national coaching role.
This after, Francis, the former senior men’s national hockey coach has been tagged as the favourite to be appointed to the now vacant senior women’s hockey coach position after the resignation of Anthony “Bumper” Marcano.
But Marcano who recently led the women’s team to a sixth-place finish at the Pan American Cup in Chile in his second stint as coach and his assistant coach Ellis Chance have opted to step down due to other work commitments.
He was first appointed to the senior women’s head coaching role back in 2010 for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India before he led the women’s team to a seventh-placed finish at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico a year later.
However, he was then replaced by Francis for the 2013 Pan American Cup in Mendoza, Argentina where the “Calypso Stickwomen” again placed eighth.
Among his recent accolades, Marcano a graduate of the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Programme (ICECP) led the women to the second round of the FIH World League qualifiers as a well as a third-place finish at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in 2018 in Barranquilla, Colombia and a second-place finish to host Peru at last year’s Pan American Challenge in Lima which served as a qualifier to last month’s FIH World Cup qualifier, the Pan American Cup in Chile.
In Chile, the T&T women suffered heavy defeats against the USA (16-0) and Canada (13-0) while blanking Peru 2-0 in their round-robin group series to qualify to the quarterfinals as third-placed finishers.
However, in the last-eight clash with Chile, T&T were crushed 11-0 before the Covid-19 virus hit the team camp, forcing T&T to default their fifth-placed playoff with Uruguay.
Should 49-year-old Francis take up the position he will be doing four months after he was replaced as men’s head coach by Darren Cowie who guided the men to a seventh-placed finish in Chile.
During his time as men’s head coach, Francis led the team to fourth spot at the last edition of the Pan American Cup in Lancaster, the USA in 2017 after a 3-0 loss to host the USA in the bronze medal.
He also coached the team which claimed its best-ever Pan American Cup bronze medal finish in Brampton, Canada in 2013 with a 3-1 defeat of the Americans in the third-place match.
Apart from Francis, national senior men’s team assistant coaches Dwain Quan Chan, 39, and Raphael Govia, 49 are also rumoured to be among the candidates.
Quan Chan was coach of the Under-21 women’s team at last year’s Junior Pan American Championships while
Govia has served as senior men’s coach winning the FIH World League Round One in Jamaica in 2014, and CAC Games, silver that same year in Mexico.
