We are just one week away from the 2023 Junior Pan American Championships and the chance for aspiring young male and female stars of the game to make a name for themselves.
Seven men’s teams and seven women’s teams will be competing at the Wildey Hockey Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The event runs from 10 - 18 April and is the 13th edition for the men’s competition and the 10th for the women.
While this is an event dominated by Argentina, both in the men's and women’s competition, the reigning champions are currently Chile men and Canada women.
For both teams, their successes in 2021 were memorable and historic ‘firsts’ and catapulted the teams into the stratosphere of competing at the 2021 Men’s and Women’s Junior World Cup events. This in itself was a lesson in adapting and coping with pressures and challenges. Chile travelled to India, where they learnt first hand about competing with the best in the world in the passionate and packed hockey stands in Bhubaneswar. A win against Egypt saw the Chile team finish a respectable 14th of 16.
Canada women had an even tougher time after they were stranded in South Africa just as the first attempt at holding the World Cup was cancelled due to Covid travel restrictions. The rearranged event, which took place exactly a year ago, saw a very inexperienced Canada team travel to Potchefstroom, South Africa, where they were unable to register a win. Speaking after their final match, which saw the team lose to fellow PAHF nation Uruguay, Head Coach Jenn Beagan took a philosophical view: ‘We knew that coming here would be a challenge. We have a young team. Many girls who’ve never played internationally before. So we’re really proud of the efforts they put in. This was a huge learning opportunity. We take this home.’
Just how much Chile men and Canada women will bring those experiences to bear in Bridgetown remains to be seen, but both teams will undoubtedly be buoyed by their previous successes.
Taking a look at the pools, Chile men will need to be playing far above their World Ranking (25) if Head Coach Matias Amoroso is to lead his team to victory once more. In their opening match they face pre-tournament favourites Argentina, who will have already got their campaign underway after they open the tournament against Brazil.
If Chile’s confidence was boosted by the team’s win at the Pan American Championships, Argentina’s confidence will be sky high after they were crowned Junior World Cup Champions in Bhubaneswar after they defeated Germany 4-2. Argentina’s experience will come from Joaquin Toscani, Bautista Capurro and Ignacio Nardolillo, all of who were part of Argentina’s World Cup winning side.
The other team in pool A is Brazil. Currently ranked 35th in the world, it would be a brave person who backed the Brazil team to top the pool. However, this is tournament hockey and Brazil’s Head Coach Claudio Rocha knows how to prepare a team for tournament hockey.
Pool B is likely to see a tussle for the top between the two North American sides. Canada, who also competed at the 2021 Junior World Cup are ranked 17th, with the USA five places below at 22nd. Home team Barbados (WR:53) will be hoping to get a boost from the local support, as they attempt to knock either the USA or Canada out of the top two places, with Guyana (74) looking to continue to develop and gain experience at this level of hockey. For Barbados this is a first foray into the Pan American Championships since 2012 and for Guyana the last appearance was 2016.
In the women’s competition, Argentina (WR:2) will be favourites for the title, by virtue of their world ranking and a fifth place finish at the Junior World Cup in 2022. However, a resurgent USA team (WR: 16) will certainly have designs on the title, while Canada (WR:15) are always to be feared at competitions that call for a doughty resilience.
Both USA’s Tracey Paul and Canada’s Jenn Beagan remain as Head Coaches for their respective teams and will have a wealth of personal experience to draw on from Potchefstroom. And while a nation’s dreams cannot be pinned on one player, USA do have the services of the hugely talented Hope Rose to call upon, as well as Abigail Tamer and Katie Dixon, who all performed well at the 2022 World Cup.
USA, Uruguay and Argentina will compete in pool A, and that is likely to be a fight to the wire because Uruguay are a team determined to break into the top ranks at senior and junior level.
Pool B is all set to provide a showdown between the discipline and resilience of the Canada team against the fiery attack of the Chile team (WR:14). With tragedy striking the Chile hockey community with the untimely death of senior goalkeeper Claudia Schuler, the young Diablas are likely to be playing with additional layers of emotion and passion.
Home team Barbados (WR: 41) will be back in Pan Am action for the first time since 2016 and their aspiration will be a place higher than seventh. For Guyana (WR:72) this is new territory as it is the first time the nation has qualified for the women’s competition. With their opening match against Canada, they continue their thrilling hockey journey.
