Long-serv­ing se­nior men’s hock­ey play­er Akim Tou­s­saint of Po­lice has been ap­point­ed cap­tain of the T&T se­nior men’s hock­ey team which will com­pete in the eight-team Pan Amer­i­can Men’s Hock­ey Cup Tour­na­ment from Jan­u­ary 20-30 in San­ti­a­go, Chile.

Tou­s­saint, who re­cent­ly served as as­sis­tant coach to new na­tion­al se­nior men’s coach Dar­ren Cowie at the Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Hock­ey Cham­pi­onships in Chile last Au­gust will lead the “Ca­lyp­so Stick­men” in­to bat­tle against North Amer­i­can foes the USA, Cana­da and Mex­i­co in Group B of the com­pe­ti­tion which will serve as the re­gion’s qual­i­fi­er to the 16-team FIH Odisha World Cup to be host­ed by In­dia in 2023.

The re­main­ing four teams in the Pan Am com­pe­ti­tion, three-time win­ners Ar­genti­na, Brazil, Chile and Pe­ru com­prise Pool A.

Cana­da win­ners in 2009 in Chile and Cu­ba, on home soil in 2000 are the on­ly oth­er na­tions to have lift­ed the men's Pan Am Cup crown.

Tou­s­saint, who scored a hat-trick when T&T de­feat­ed Kaza­khstan 6-4 at the 2018 FIH In­door World Cup in Berlin, Ger­many will lead a well-bal­anced team of youth and ex­pe­ri­ence in­clu­sive of goal­keep­er An­drey Rocke who makes a re­turn af­ter a three-year hia­tus with his last ap­pear­ance com­ing at 2018 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games.

The oth­er ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers se­lect­ed to the team are Aidan De Gannes, Jor­dan Reynos, Mick­ell Pierre, Jor­dan Vieira, Shaquille Daniel, and Mar­cano broth­ers, Tariq and Eng­land-based Teague who plies his trade with Eng­land Hock­ey League Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ti­tle-chas­ing Hamp­stead & West­min­ster.

The oth­er mem­bers of the 18-man squad se­lect­ed by coach Cowie in­clude Mal­colm Bap­tiste, Lyn­dell By­er, Joel Daniel, Ghard­el El­cock, Ethan Reynos, Caleb Guis­sepi, Jo­van Wren, Daniel By­er, and Tarell Singh.

In­clud­ed in the 18-man team are three sets of broth­ers, Tariq and Teague Mar­cano, Lyn­dell and Daniel By­er, and Jor­dan and Ethan Reynos.

The pair of Roshane Hamil­ton and Jacques Poon-Lewis are the trav­el­ling re­serves while the quin­tet of Ar­rielle Bowen,

Tris­ton Grant, Cade Lue Sue, Shawn Phillip and David Cok­er have been se­lect­ed as train­ing re­serves.

The “Ca­lyp­so Stick­men” who will train on Sun­day (Box­ing Day) at the St James Po­lice Train­ing Bar­racks Hock­ey Field from 12.30 pm will flick off their cam­paign in Chile against the USA on Jan­u­ary 20 from 3 pm.

This will be fol­lowed by match­es against Mex­i­co and Cana­da to close out round-robin play.

At the end of round-robin play the top two teams in each pool will ad­vance to the main draw semi­fi­nals, with the third-place and fi­nal match­es. The semi­fi­nal win­ners will se­cure the two Pan Amer­i­can spots to the 16-team World Cup.

Cowie who re­placed Glen “Fi­do” Fran­cis as se­nior men’s coach in Oc­to­ber will have as his as­sis­tants Dwain Quan Chan and Raphael Govia to serve as his as­sis­tants.

Un­der the guid­ance of Fran­cis, the na­tion­al men's hock­ey team placed fourth at the last edi­tion of the Pan Amer­i­can Cup in Lan­cast­er, the USA in 2017 af­ter a 3-0 loss to host the USA in the bronze medal.

And due to their top-six fin­ish in the eight-team com­pe­ti­tion, T&T se­cured au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tion to next year's qual­i­fiers. Fran­cis al­so coached the team which claimed its best-ever bronze medal fin­ish in Bramp­ton, Cana­da in 2013 with a 3-1 de­feat of the Amer­i­cans in the third-place match.

Four years ear­li­er (2009) in San­ti­a­go, Chile, Nicholas "Chico" Govia coached the men's team to the fifth spot, and in 2004, its oth­er par­tic­i­pa­tion end­ed with a 2-1 loss to Chile in the bronze medal clash Un­der David Fran­cois in Lon­don, Cana­da.

T&T Team

Akim Tou­s­saint (c), An­drey Rocke (GK), Mal­colm Bap­tiste (GK), Aidan De Gannes, Lyn­dell By­er, Jor­dan Reynos, Mick­ell Pierre, Jor­dan Vieira, Tariq Mar­cano, Teague Mar­cano, Shaquille Daniel, Joel Daniel, Ghard­el El­cock, Ethan Reynos, Caleb Guis­sepi, Jo­van Wren, Daniel By­er, Tarell Singh.

Trav­el­ling Re­serves: Roshane Hamil­ton, Jacques Poon-Lewis (GK)

Train­ing Re­serve: Ar­rielle Bowen, Tris­ton Grant, Cade Lue Sue, Shawn Phillip, David Cok­er.