T&T se­nior men's and women's hock­ey teams are ex­pect­ed to be­gin their de­par­ture on Sun­day for their re­spec­tive 2022 Pan Amer­i­can Hock­ey Cup in San­ti­a­go, Chile. The tour­na­ments which run from Jan­u­ary 19 – 30 will serve as qual­i­fiers to their re­spec­tive FIH World Cup.

In Chile, the Dar­ren Cowie-coached T&T men’s squad will come up against USA, Cana­da and Mex­i­co in Group B of the eight-team com­pe­ti­tion, 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.

Mean­while, the “Ca­lyp­so Stick­women” will com­pete in Pool B of their com­pe­ti­tion against the USA, Cana­da and Pe­ru while three-time win­ners Ar­genti­na, host Chile and Uruguay are in an all-South Amer­i­can Pool A fol­low­ing the with­draw­al of Mex­i­co which forced or­gan­is­ers to re-arranged the group­ings. T&T was orig­i­nal­ly grouped with Ar­genti­na, Uruguay and Chile.

The 2022 Women's FIH Hock­ey World Cup will be the 15th edi­tion of the Women's FIH Hock­ey World Cup, and will be held in Ter­ras­sa, Spain and Am­stelveen, the Nether­lands from Ju­ly 1-17, 2022.

On Fri­day, the Min­istry of Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment stat­ed that it had dis­bursed TT$1,611,787 in fi­nan­cial sup­port to the T&T Hock­ey Board (TTHB) to as­sist with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the se­nior men's and women's teams for the 2022 Se­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cup in San­ti­a­go, Chile from Jan­u­ary 19-30.

Con­tact­ed for a com­ment, the TTHB na­tion­al teams' ad­min­is­tra­tor, Cindy Mar­tin-Faustin con­firmed that the lo­cal sport­ing body was in re­ceipt of the fund­ing and was in the process of fi­nal­is­ing the team’s de­par­ture for the dou­ble-gen­der com­pe­ti­tion.

Mar­tin-Faustin said that the play­ers were in the process of hav­ing their coro­n­avirus PCR (poly­merase chain re­ac­tion) test­ing done as re­quest­ed for de­par­ture and the com­pe­ti­tion and would be de­part­ing via Pana­ma on Sun­day.

With re­gards to the quo­tas of ath­letes leav­ing at any giv­en time, Mar­tin-Faustin said it was not easy to give a cer­tain fig­ure as it was de­pen­dent on the avail­abil­i­ty of seats on the flights both via Pana­ma City as well as Mi­a­mi.

For the tour­na­ment in Chile, the women’s team will be with­out for­mer cap­tain Alana Lewis and Sa­van­nah De Fre­itas due to fam­i­ly and work com­mit­ments, re­spec­tive­ly, with the duo be­ing re­placed by Nao­mi Samp­son, who was part of the team at last year’s qual­i­fy­ing com­pe­ti­tion in Li­ma, Pe­ru, and Sha­nia Ga­jad­har, who was a late with­draw­al back then due to per­son­al mat­ters.

The sev­en oth­er play­ers who were not part of the team last Au­gust but in­clud­ed in the women’s squad by coach An­tho­ny Mar­cano are USA-based play­er/coach Tamia Roach, Long Is­land Uni­ver­si­ty quar­tet, Fe­li­cia King and Olton sis­ters Saarah, Kait­lyn and Saman­tha, and Aus­tralia-based Kim­ber­ly Young (co-cap­tain) while goal­keep­er Talia Seale gets her first se­nior team call-up.

T&T women open their cam­paign against the USA on Jan­u­ary 19, fol­lowed by match­es against Pe­ru on Jan­u­ary 21 and Cana­da, two days lat­er al­so from 5.15 pm to close out round-robin play.

The top team at the end of round-robin play from each pool will ad­vance di­rect­ly to the main draw semi­fi­nals on Jan­u­ary 27 while the sec­ond and third-placed teams in each pool meet in cross-over quar­ter­fi­nals two days ear­li­er to de­ter­mine the two re­main­ing semi­fi­nal qual­i­fiers.

Both fi­nal­ists and the third-place fin­ish­ers in the Pan Amer­i­can com­pe­ti­tion which ends on Jan­u­ary 29 will earn places at the16-team FIH World Cup.

The Ar­gen­tine women are five-time Pan Amer­i­can Cup win­ners and the lone team to have ever won gold in the com­pe­ti­tion, while the USA has end­ed sec­ond in each edi­tion ex­cept 2017 when they took bronze, and Chile, sil­ver.

The T&T women who have re­sumed train­ing have ap­peared at the Pan Amer­i­can Cup three times, pre­vi­ous­ly. The first was in 2004 in Bar­ba­dos when they end­ed eighth, and then in 2009 when they placed fourth in Bermu­da and four years lat­er when they end­ed sev­enth in Ar­genti­na.

…Tou­s­saint leads men in­to bat­tle

Long-serv­ing se­nior men’s hock­ey play­er Akim Tou­s­saint of Po­lice will lead the se­nior men’s hock­ey team in­to bat­tle in Chile.

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 the 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” flick off their cam­paign in Chile against USA on Jan­u­ary 20 fol­lowed by match­es against Mex­i­co on Jan­u­ary 22, and Cana­da, two days lat­er 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 on Jan­u­ary 26, while the sec­ond and third-placed teams will meet in cross-over quar­ter­fi­nals to de­ter­mine the oth­er semi­fi­nal qual­i­fiers. The two semi­fi­nal win­ners will then 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 be sup­port­ed by as­sis­tant coach­es 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, USA in 2017 af­ter a 3-0 loss to host 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.

Teams

Women: Sha­nia De Fre­itas, Avion Ah­ston (co-cap­tain), Aman­da George, Anya Sealy, Tamia Roach, Saarah Olton, Saman­tha Olton, Kait­lyn Olton, Fe­li­cia King, Kim­ber­ly Young (co-cap­tain), Gabrielle Thomp­son, Zene Hen­ry, Brit­tney Hingh, Mia Otero, Ar­resia Sandy (goal­keep­er), Talia Seale (goal­keep­er), Nao­mi Samp­son, Sha­nia Ga­jad­har.

Trav­el­ling Re­serves: Nicole White­man, Sarah Samp­son (goal­keep­er).

Tech­ni­cal staff: An­tho­ny Mar­cano (head coach), El­lis Chance (as­sis­tant coach), Jen­nifer Lan­der (man­ag­er), Tere­sa Leza­ma (as­sis­tant man­ag­er/video­g­ra­ph­er), Den­no­ra George (masseuse), Kevin Mc In­tyre (phys­io­ther­a­pist).

Men: 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).

Tech­ni­cal staff: Dar­ren Cowie (head coach), Dwain Quan Chan (as­sis­tant coach), Raphael Govia (as­sis­tant coach), Roger Gomes (man­ag­er), De­r­ick Ash­by (masseuse), Kevin Mc In­tyre (phys­io­ther­a­pist).