Nigel Si­mon

This coun­try's men's and women's Un­der-21 hock­ey teams will flick off their cam­paigns at the Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior (U-21) Hock­ey Cham­pi­onship to­day against Ja­maica at the Pan Amer­i­can Hock­ey Sta­di­um, Jalis­co, Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co. First in­to ac­tion from 10 am, will be the ju­nior "Stick­women" led by co-cap­tains, Notre Dames' Tama­ra De No­bri­ga and Aman­da George of Ven­tures in their Pool B con­test. Both T&T and Ja­maica will be the last Pool B teams com­pet­ing as USA?faced Venezuela and Chile bat­tled Paraguay in the two Pool B open­ers, last night. Pri­or to ar­riv­ing in Mex­i­co, the ju­nior women's team which in­clude se­nior women's team play­ers Brit­tney Hingh, De No­bri­ga, Kel­li O'Brien, George and Stephanie White­man, en­joyed a four-match un­beat­en tour of Cu­ba in rel­a­tive­ly try­ing con­di­tions and coach Cathy-Ann Bou­caud will be ex­pect­ing her charges to con­tin­ue on that streak.

The ju­nior "Ca­lyp­so Stick­women" al­so faces Venezuela to­mor­row from 11.45 am fol­lowed by match­es against USA on Fri­day (11.45 am), Paraguay on Sun­day (11.45 am) and Chile on Mon­day from 3.15 pm, ahead of cross-over play­offs. Pool A of the nine-team tour­na­ment fea­tures Mex­i­co, Uruguay, Cana­da, Ar­genti­na and Brazil. The Cana­di­ans start­ed play with a con­vinc­ing 7-0 de­mo­li­tion of Brazil while Mex­i­co came up against Uruguay in the oth­er match in Pool A. Three coun­tries will qual­i­fy for the FIH Sev­enth Women's Ju­nior World Cup. If a PAHF Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion is the host, that coun­try will qual­i­fy au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, to­geth­er with the two high­est placed teams, not in­clud­ing the host. The lo­cal ju­nior "Stick­men" led by joined-cap­tains, Aidan De Gannes of Notre Dame and Coro­na Fa­ti­ma's Do­minic Jaikaransinh will take the field from 1.30 pm as both teams play their first match in the five-team Pool A round-robin se­ries. In ad­di­tion to De Gannes, a reg­u­lar mem­ber of the se­nior men's team for the past five years, the ju­nior men's team fea­tures a num­ber of oth­er play­ers with se­nior team ex­pe­ri­ence in Jaikarans­ingh, Nicholas Tris­ton Grant, An­drew Vieira, Quinn Clarke, Co­gie But­ler, Shaquille Daniel and Chad Pe­dro and should prove too much for the "Reg­gae Stick­men". The Richard Quan Chan-coached squad will al­so face Brazil to­mor­row from 3.15 pm fol­lowed by match­es against Ar­genti­na (Fri­day) from 3.15 pm and Guatemala on Sun­day from 10 am, to close out pool play.

Yes­ter­day, the Ar­gen­tines sound­ed a warn­ing to all com­peti­tors with a 24-0 thrash­ing of Guatemala led by six goals from Lu­cas Mar­tinez and a beaver-trick by cap­tain Gon­za­lo Peil­lat. The trio of Lau­taro Di­az, Leonel Coel­ho and Joaquinn Meni­ni all added three goals each for the South Amer­i­cans who led 8-0 at the in­ter­val while Isidoro Ibar­ra got two, and Nico­las Sa­chet­ti, Igna­cio Paz and Li­onel Mon­za, one each. Pool B com­pris­es Cana­da, Mex­i­co, Puer­to Ri­co and Uruguay while Pool C con­sist of Bar­ba­dos, Chile, USA and Venezuela. In the two oth­er men's match­es yes­ter­day, Cana­da faced Pe­ru and USA tack­led Venezuela. At the end of the first round, the top team in Pool A and Pool C as well as the run­ner-up from Pool B will ad­vance to sec­ond round Pool D while the win­ner of Pool B and the run­ners-up from Pool A and C will con­test Pool E from which the two qual­i­fiers for the FIH Tenth Men's Ju­nior World Cup will be de­ter­mined. The third-place fin­ish­er will be the first re­serve team. The teams plac­ing third in Pool A and C and fourth in Pool B will com­prise Pool F while the third placed team in Pool B, as well as the fourth placed teams in Pool A and C and fifth in Pool B will com­pete in Pool G all for po­si­tions sev­enth through 13.

T&T teams

U-21 men:

Tariq Mar­cano, Michael O'Con­nor II, Do­minic Jaikarans­ingh, Jor­dan Reynos, Nicholas Tris­ton Grant, An­drew Vieira, Kwasi Em­manuel, Quinn Clarke, Loren­zo Lo­dai, Jor­dan Vieira, Aidan De Gannes, Co­gie But­ler, Ish­mael Camp­bell, Shakeil Joseph, Je­muel Romeo, Shaquille Daniel, Chad Pe­dro, Cade Lue Sue,

Tech­ni­cal staff: Richard Quan Chan (head coach), Derek Lee (as­sis­tant coach), Nata­ki Akii-Bua (man­ag­er)

U-23 women:

Amie Olton, An­abelle Castagne, Ke­tu­rah John Bap­tiste, Bri­an­na Govia, Tamia Roach, Kay­la Brath­waite, Stephanie White­man, Elise Olton, Jes­si­ca Lee, Dana-Lee De Gannes, Lisa Smith, Tama­ra De No­bri­ga, Aman­da George, Zene Hen­ry, Kel­li O'Brien, Ar­riesa Sandy, Mizchelle An­tho­ny, Brit­tany Hingh

Tech­ni­cal staff: Cathy-Ann Bou­caud (coach), Derek Lee (as­sis­tant coach), Val­isha Sylvester (man­ag­er)

Oth­er of­fi­cials:

Zynul Khan (doc­tor), Ken­neth Jaikarans­ingh (head of del­e­ga­tion), Joseph Lewis (goal­keep­er coach), Abi­gail Agard (mas­sage ther­a­pist), Lisa Her­nan­dez (um­pire), Ayan­na Mc Lean (um­pire)

T&T sched­ule

Men

To­day: T&T vs Ja­maica, 1.30am.

To­mor­row: T&T vs Brazil, 3.15pm.

Fri­day: T&T vs Ar­genti­na, 3.15 pm.

Sun­day: T&T vs Guatemala, 10 am.

Women

To­day: T&T vs Ja­maica, 10 am.

To­mor­row: T&T vs Venezuela, 11.45 am.

Fri­day:T&T vs USA, 11.45 am.

Sun­day: T&T vs Paraguay, 11.45 am.

Mon­day: T&T vs Chile, 3.15 pm.