Darren Cowie, coach of the T&T junior hockey men team says he is optimistic about his team chances of a top-two finish at next months' Junior Men Pan American Hockey Championship in Santiago, Chile from August 21-28.
The Junior Continental Championships will act as the qualification competition for the 2021 Junior World Cup at the end of 2021.
And in the seven-team men’s tournament in Chile, fifth-ranked T&T will face a tough pool assignment having been placed with top-ranked Argentina, and the fourth-ranked USA in round-robin Pool A while Brazil, Canada (2nd), Chile (3rd) and Mexico (6th) are in Pool B.
The 18-member squad will be captained by talented England-based Teague Marcano of English Championship Division club, Hampstead & Westminster and also features the Singh brothers of Paragon Tarell and Tariq, Ghardel Elcock, David Coker and forward Aidan Marcano.
Missing out is Australia-based Liam Nieves, the son of former national player Dean Nieves, due to the lockdown restrictions in that country brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Looking at his team’s chance of securing a top-two finish to qualify for the World Championships, Cowie told Guardian Media Sports on Wednesday that it will be difficult, but not impossible.
He said: “Everybody knows that Argentina is the powerhouse in the region, so it will come down to our clash with the USA for the second spot in our pool to get to the semifinals, and from there once you win that match you are in the final and on the way to World Champs."
He added, "So we have to continue to prepare as best as we can, as all the teams going to the tournament would have been affected in some way by the pandemic in the last year.”
“A lot of them are making up for the lost time by playing in international friendly series of practice matches, but we don’t have that chance as yet.
“We were looking at playing against the senior men’s team but that may put the players at risk with regards to the coronavirus, so we may have to select a team from vaccinated players to play against, " stated Cowie.
“Other than that, we will have to warm-up matches against Canada and Brazil on arrival in Chile, ahead of our first match,” he ended.
The team will continue training at the St James Police Barracks until their departure on August 15 on Tuesdays (3 pm – 4.30 pm), Thursdays (4.30 - to 6.30 pm) and Saturdays (9 am – 11 am) and Sundays (7 am – 9am)
T&T Junior Men’s Pan American hockey team: Teague Marcano (captain), Malcolm Baptiste (goalkeeper), Jacques Poon-Lewis (goalkeeper), Tarell Singh, Tyrese Benjamin, Ethan Reynos, Jovan Wren, David Coker, Ghardel Elcock, Caleb Guissepi, Jeremy Nieves, Justin Beharry, Tariq Singh, Aidan Marcano, Roshane Hamilton, Joel Daniel, Nicholas Whiteman and Shawn Phillip.
Reserves: Adam Perreira, Matthew Perreira, Matthew Newallo, Johnathan Afong (goalkeeper), Jeshurun Drayton
Technical staff: Darren Cowie (coach), Akim Toussaint (assistant coach), Sharon Trotman (manager), Alexandria Olton (psychologist), Kanisha Vincent (EDPU Performance Testing).