USA Field Hockey today announced the team roster for the 2009 Men's Junior World Cup, to be held from 7-21 June 2009 and co-hosted by Malaysia and Singapore.
The USA qualified for the Junior World Cup with their bronze medal performance at the 2009 Junior Pan American Cup in February, their first qualification ever at that level. The Junior World Cup roster highlights the youth movement in the USA men's program, as nine players selected are also members of the USA Senior National Team. Jonathan Ginolfi and Jed Cunningham have over fifty combined caps at the senior level. Kevin Segeren was named Best Goalkeeper at the Junior Pan Am Cup.
ÔÇ£We have a very committed group of athletes that are training very hard to be ready to embrace the challenges ahead,ÔÇØ said National Team Head Coach Nick Conway. ÔÇ£Everyone is looking forward to the Junior World Cup which will undoubtedly provide us with a huge building block opportunity in the development of our players as we move forwards. We have set clear performance targets which we feel if we perform effectively we can achieve regardless of the opposition that we face.'
The Men's Hockey Junior World Cup is an international under-21 field hockey competition sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). Twenty of the world's top junior national teams will compete in an expanded tournament field. The twenty will be divided into four pools of five teams; the USA will compete in Pool C, which also features England, Korea, Spain and co-host Malaysia. Pool C will compete in at Taman Daya stadium in Johor, Malaysia.
ÔÇ£We are excited about this excellent opportunity to continue to build upon our high performance program,ÔÇØ said Conway. ÔÇ£Competing in quality tournaments is the foundation for success at the international level. We are not about being happy to have achieved selection to the Junior World Cup, but we are committed to holding ourselves accountable for strong competitive performances during the tournament.ÔÇØ
Team USA: Amrit Ahluwalia, Kevin Barber, Alex von Bieberstein, Jed Cunningham, Ajai Dhadwal, Jonathan Ginolfi, Will Holt, Manny Martinez, Viren Padhiar, Derk Pelle, Sebastian Scheurer, Colin Scally, Kevin Segeren, Ryan Sundeen, Tyler Sundeen, Nick Szoke, Liam Walsh, Andrew Zayac
Source: USA Field Hockey
