Five Burnaby field hockey club juniors were recently selected to Canada's under-21 junior national team for a recent series of games against Chile.
Ali Currumbhoy, Gabriel HoGarcia and C.J. Roydhouse of Burnaby, and Adrien d'Andrade and Andrew Kanerva were all named to the men's junior squad for the five-game series that took place in Vancouver late last month.
Garcia-Ho, 17, scored three goals in the series in which Canada posted a record of two wins and three draws. Kanerva, a 16-year-old Delta product, added two markers for the junior nats.
"All the boys played in all five matches and they all played well," said assistant junior national team coach and Burnaby premier men's coach Inderpal Sehmbi. "In Burnaby, we are really lucky. Our premier team is based on youth."
The evidence is plain to see, said Sehmbi, adding representation on national teams has jumped from zero three years ago to five players on the junior national team and one on the senior squad in that same time period.
With no junior program to speak of in Burnaby and improper FieldTurf facilities to train on, the club, among the smallest in the Lower Mainland, still manages to be competitive and draw good young players to the game.
"We're playing catchup at the moment, but we've got really committed kids," Sehmbi said.
With high-level coaching and the technically challenging aspect of the game as the lure, many multi-talented local athletes find a place in the sport of field hockey, Sehmbi added.
Of the five club players on the junior national team, one played collegiate-level volleyball, another highlevel soccer, while two others were involved in competitive hockey.
The Burnaby premier men's team, which boasts an average age of approximately 21 years, staved off relegation at the end of this season with one of its biggest wins as a club, knocking off a West Vancouver team that had two former national team captains in the lineup.
"That for sure, was the biggest win we have had as a club," Sehmbi said.
The junior team is currently involved in a threeweek training period in Vancouver prior to a further selection for a fourmatch series against Team U.S.A. at the end of the month.
"Our end goal is the junior Pan American championships in Mexico in 2012. It's also a qualifier for the junior World Cup in India in 2013," Sehmbi said, adding "the opportunity to be recognized is huge."
Among the incentives for athletes to take up field hockey are the national team program based in Vancouver and the national team's overall current 10th place ranking in the world.
Local athletes interested in taking up the game of field hockey can email [email protected].
