Cindy Martin-Faustin, the T&T Hockey Board national team's administrator is calling for more support, especially financially for the teams as they prepare for FIH World League Round Two qualifiers.
The national teams which won their round one series in Jamaica last year after wins over Dominican Republic (2-0 on penalty-strokes) after a 2-2 draw, Barbados (3-1) and Jamaica (3-0) will journey to Chula Vista, San Diego, California, USA from February 28 to March 8 where they will face host USA, Austria, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Italy and Russia in a round-robin series.
However, looking ahead to the tournament for which regular coach Glen "Fido" Francis will resume head coaching duties after missing the Jamaica qualifiers, Martin-Faustin says the team is facing a lot of struggles, mainly financially.
She explained, "As administrators of sporting organisation our greatest challenge is to motivate and inspire players when you can't even give them the smallest amount of stipend as appreciation for their selfless work of representing your country."
Noting the demand on local athletes to suceed on the international scale without much support most times, Martin-Faustin added, "Our country wants to see our teams raise the T&T flag high with success at these tournaments, but players are not treated as professionals and are expected to play as professionals.
"Last year was a hectic one for hockey as we participated in three major tournaments within a five-month period.
"And two of those months were spent abroad by none professional players which puts a strain on your job stability and family life, especially for players who are self employed it's a financial burden.
Martin-Faustin pointed out that apart from the World League qualifiers in Jamaica, the men's team also partricipated at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland, England and then to end off the year, took home silver in the central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Veracruz, Mexico, after losing to Cuba in the final.
She noted that at present the men's team has a great combination of youth and experience working in unison for the same goal.
However, while training has resumed, it has been hampered by a few players being unavailable due to new jobs, school or family commitments.
Despite these challenges, Martin-Faustin said coach Francis was still hoping of fielding a very competitive team to compete in the USA with England-based star player Kwandwane Browne set to return for a live-in camp from January 26-30 with the aim of bringing the team training to the level of intensity required to take their game to the next level.
In addition to Browne, the other senior players to miss the first round series in which Raphael Govia was the interim T&T coach and back in the training squad are Cogie Butler, Dillet Gilkes, Dominic Young, Ron Alexander, Christopher Scipio, Dwain Quan Chan, Mickelle Pierre and Allan Henderson while Wayne Legerton is the lone casualty.
Following the World League round two series, the national men's team is carded to head to the Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada from July 10-26.
And it is hoped the team will use the World League qualifiers against their much fancied opponents to assist with preparing them together for Pan Am with hopefully a camp in May or June finance permitting
With regards to the securing of financial support from corporate T&T, the national team administrator admitted that the sport of hockey may not be well known as other ssport in T&T to command the same funding like football and cricket but it's continued success speaks volumes for the work being done by the administration and players.
"In this regard, the T&THB continues to dialog with the Sport Company of T&T and the Ministry of Sport for funding for these tours and camps etc.
"With a small fraternity of averagely 1000 membership it's commendable that we have reach this far and broken so many inroads internationally from technical staff and umpires always being chosen to officiate tournaments at all levels and in various countries around the world, " ended Martin-Faustin.
?Men's training squad: Ron Alexander, Kwan Browne, Cogie Butler, Lyndell Byer, Ishmael Campbell, Darren Cowie, Shaquille Daniel, Aidan De Gannes, Solomon Eccles, Kwasi Emmanuel, Kristen Emmanuel, Dillet Gilkes, Nicholas Grant, Dominic Jaikaransingh, Marcus James, Shane Legerton, Terrence Baptiste, Justin Pascal, Tariq Marcano, Che Modeste, Stefan Mouttet, Kiel Murray, Michael O'Connor, Allan Henderson, Mickell Pierre, Dwain Quan Chan, Jordan Reynos, Andrey Rocke, Christopher Scipio, Karlos Stephen, Akim Toussaint, Jordan Vieira, Danil Trancoso, Dominic Young.