Bruno Patricio is general manager at the Brazilian Hockey Confederation. With the development of hockey in Brazil firmly at the top of his remit, particularly with the home nation men’s team competing at Rio, we were privileged to get a few moments of his time to find out how the sport in Brazil is progressing, and what the future might hold for hockey in the Samba nation.
“Over the past few years, the Brazilian Hockey Federation has been working together with the state federations of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo and Santa Catarina, to introduce hockey in clubs and, especially, in schools. We strongly believe that the success of the hockey development project in Brazil depends on the inclusion of hockey in schools, so we have been pushing strongly for this.”
And the push is working. International Olympic Day took place on 23 June and, in celebration of the movement, more than 3,000 children and teenagers took part in hockey activities across the country.
Two days later, the players from the men’s national squad ran a series of hockey clinics in Rio de Janeiro for school children from both the public and private sector. Patricio describes the engagement with hockey as “incredibly positive”.
Of course, for hockey to develop in any country, there must be a solid structure around coaching and officiating.
To this end, Patricio says there has been some serious input into lifting the skill level and competency of coaches, umpires and administrators.
He explains that a team of top level coaches and officials has been travelling to each state to hold training courses for potential hockey coaches and officials.
He said: “As a result of this work, new officials are being prepared and they are already working on the national and state tournaments. We expect that these new officials, in the near future, may work in Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) and FIH tournaments.”
Hockey fever is gripping this country. Last week a member of the Brazilian team featured on the front page of a national paper.
In a country that loves soccer, this is a huge achievement. Patricio is all too aware of the opportunity for growth that is presenting itself: “With the great visibility that hockey is having, due to the participation of Brazil in the Olympic Games, great opportunities to start hockey in clubs and schools are emerging. After the Games, we will intensify the work of hockey initiatives in schools and clubs, to increase the number of hockey players and people involved with our sport in Brazil. The FIH Project “Hockey Revolution” is proving very important in this aspect.”
The Brazilian Hockey Confederation first started working closely with FIH to promote hockey in 2011. A High Performance Director was employed by the international body to work with high performance athletes. The goal? Qualification for the home games in 2016. As we now know, the women’s team fell just short but the men qualified through the PAHF Games, where they finished a commendable fourth.
Not neglecting grass roots development in Brazil, FIH also organised for hockey equipment to be delivered to schools and clubs.
While Brazil has already made giant steps forward, the true measure of success will be in the legacy once the Rio sports spectacular has finished.
Patricio is optimistic: “The legacy that the Olympics Games are leaving for Brazilian hockey is amazing. Hockey has already become better known in Brazil, as we have received a lot of attention in the Brazilian media in the last few years.
“In Rio de Janeiro we have four official hockey pitches, which we will use to accelerate the development of the sport in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. We want to make Rio de Janeiro one of the powerhouses in the PAHF region and to promote international tournaments here, receiving players and teams from all over the world.”
“Already the level of competitiveness of our men’s national team has risen and will continue to rise as they compete in top level events. If we can also increase the number of players and people involved with hockey at all levels, then we will have achieved the goals we set out five years ago.”
Hockey development at both elite and grass roots level in Brazil is a great example of the FIH 10 Year Strategy, the Hockey Revolution. For more information about this, click here.
To find out more about the Brazilian Hockey Federation, click here.
