National junior hockey team arrives in Toronto ahead of Junior Pan Am Championships

Guyana’s national Junior Men’s Hockey team arrived in Toronto, Canada, on Monday evening to take part in the Pan American Junior Championships, scheduled for May 20-28.

The players settled into their accommodation at the University of Toronto grounds and had a taste of the 6°C temperature on their early morning jog and stretching session on Tuesday, under the guidance of physical trainer Barrington Browne and was also was scheduled to have its first practice session on one of the University’s two artificial turfs.

The team is also scheduled to play a practice match on Wednesday against a selection of senior Toronto club players, before their final practice session on Thursday, with the tournament scheduled to start on Friday.

Three of the team’s most experienced players, Hilton Chester, Kareem McKenzie and Daniel Hooper, will join the team on Thursday evening, after completing some of their CXC and CAPE exams. The team is schedule to take on the tournament’s third seed on Friday at 15:00h, then Mexico on Saturday at the same time before playing second seed Canada on Monday at 17:30h.

According to Head Coach Robert Fernandes, “We will use these first few days to get the boys comfortable with their surroundings, acclimatised to the conditions and adjusted to playing on the turf. We usually get better as tournaments wear on and we adjust to the faster pace of play that the turf allows. So hopefully by arriving here early and having three sessions on the surface we will be firing on all cylinders by Friday.”

Local fans will be able to stream the matches live on the www.panamhockey.org website.

The National Junior Men’s Hockey Team reads: Mark Sargeant (Captain), Medroy Scotland (GK), Michael Hing (GK), Kareem McKenzie, Keon McKenzie, Daniel Hooper, Shaquille Leung, Meshach Sargeant, Rosario Ramsammy, Aroydy Branford, Andrew Stewart, Leon Bacchus, Jael Gaskin, Omar Hopkinson, Hilton Chester, Ato Greene, Paramanand Dindial, and Nyron Joseph. The Manager is Hubert Forrester, and the Coaches are Robert Fernandes, Dwayne Alleyne and Marvin Dannett. The Physical Trainer is Barrington Browne.