Nigel Si­mon

Se­nior T&T men's hock­ey play­er Aidan De Gannes left on Tues­day for Am­s­ter­dam, Hol­land, for a three-week tri­al stint at top Pre­mier Hock­ey League (Hoofd­klasse) club, Den Bosch which end­ed ninth in the 12-team com­pe­ti­tion last sea­son.

Ac­cord­ing De Gannes who turned 23 on Ju­ly 25, HC Den Bosch which is un­der the su­per­vi­sion of T&T coach, Dutch­man Er­ic Ver­boom presents a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther his de­vel­op­ment in the sport.

"I have been a mem­ber of the na­tion­al se­nior team since 2007 and I think this is the right time for me to try and make a move abroad. I am anx­ious­ly look­ing to­wards the ex­pe­ri­ence of train­ing and play­ing with top qual­i­ty in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers from around the world and hope­ful­ly I will im­press the coach­ing staff enough to get me a con­tract."

A for­mer Queen's Roy­al Col­lege stu­dent, De Gannes, who has been a mem­ber of lo­cal club, Notre Dame ever since he picked up the sport in 2006 added: "I will be work­ing as hard as pos­si­ble to im­press the coach­es as a con­tract will not on­ly be a pos­i­tive for me, but en­able me to bring back some knowl­edge to my lo­cal club­mate and na­tion­al team-mates as well.|

Re­flect­ing on his de­vel­op­ment as a play­er lo­cal­ly, De Gannes who was a mem­ber of the se­nior men's team that lift­ed the Caribbean Cup and se­cured a his­toric bronze medal at the Pan Amer­i­can Cup in Cana­da last year said his par­ents have giv­en him un­con­di­tion­al sup­port since he picked up the hock­ey sticks.

"My two main coach­es in Kwand­wane Browne and Glen "Fi­do" Fran­cis" have al­so played key roles in my de­vel­op­ment and I want to con­tin­ue to do them proud."

Com­ment­ing on the op­por­tu­ni­ty for De Gannes, who was part of his team at the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Com­mon­wealth Games in Glas­gow, Scot­land, Fran­cis, a for­mer na­tion­al goal­keep­er ad­mit­ted its a chance of a life­time for his na­tion­al play­er.

"In the past we have had play­ers who se­cured pro­fes­sion­al con­tracts to play in Ger­many and Eng­land, but this is a first and at Den Bosch he (Aidan) will get the chance to play along­side some of the best play­ers from South Africa and Hol­land who are at the club."

"It doesn't get much bet­ter than the Dutch Hock­ey League and I hope he grasps the chance with both hands, be­cause he is one of the best young play­ers that we have in T&T and de­serves a chance to show­case his tal­ent at a high­er lev­el," added Fran­cis.

Should, De Gannes man­aged to im­press enough for a con­tract he will join an il­lus­tri­ous list of cur­rent and for­mer na­tion­al team-mates to ply their trade in Eu­rope at some point in their ca­reer led by Browne, Bri­an Gar­cia, Ron Alexan­der, Nigel Prov­i­dence, Dar­ren Cowie, Solomon Ec­cles, Alan Hen­der­son, Mick­el Pierre, Evans Pierre Far­rell, Akim Tou­s­saint, Dwain Quan Chan and Wayne Leg­erton.

Aidan's ho­n­ours

Aidan De Gannes, ma­jor tour­na­ments for T&T and ac­com­plish­ments:

2013: 3rd, Pan Amer­i­can Cup, Bramp­ton, Toron­to, Cana­da, Au­gust 10th � 17th

2nd rnd. two, FIH World League, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb­ru­ary 27th to March 5th

2012: 5th,Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Games, Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co, Oc­to­ber 10th -23rd

1st rnd. one, FIH World League, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and To­ba­go, No­vem­ber 13th � 17th

2011: 7th, Pan Amer­i­can Games, Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co, Oc­to­ber 19-28

2010: 2nd, Cen­tral Amer­i­can & Caribbean Games, Mayaguez, Puer­to Ri­co, Ju­ly 22-30

Pre­lim­i­nary Round, Com­mon­wealth Games, New Del­hi, In­dia, Oc­to­ber 4th � 14th

2009: 5th, Pan Amer­i­can Cup, San­ti­a­go, Chile, March 7th to 15th

2008: 7th, Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships, Port-of-Spain, T&T, Oc­to­ber 17th to 26th

5th, Olympic Qual­i­fi­er, North Shore City, Auck­land, New Zealand, Feb­ru­ary 2nd to 10th

2007: 1st, Pan Amer­i­ca Hock­ey Fed­er­a­tion, Caribbean Hock­ey Cup, Port-of-Spain, T&, No­vem­ber 7th to 11th