Hockey looking up, says JHF boss Tomlinson

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Victor Tomlinson, president of the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF), is optimistic that the standard and quality of the sport will improve following the recent visit of former Argentina world championship assistant women's coach, Professor Guillermo Fonseca.

Fonseca, on a recent three-week visit to the island, conducted a number of coaching seminars and lecture series across the island.

"We had 14 coaches attending this seminar and this is unprecedented for us because we have never had so many coaches being exposed to such high level of hockey lecturing," said Tomlinson.

"We expect that they would have learnt a lot from these seminars because I understand that the lessons were very interesting and we hope that these coaches will now be able to translate this to their players and improve the standard of play going forward," he said.

Tomlinson added that in addition to the sessions in the classroom, Fonseca, the head coach of Argentina's Under-21 team, which won the silver medal at the World Youth Championships in the United States in 2009, also exposed the local coaches to a number of on-the-field techniques.

Coaches enthusiastic

"The coaches are now very enthusiastic and I believe that we have benefited immensely from Fonseca's visit," Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson also stated that Jamaica's players will now be better prepared for Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games 2014 and for the next Pan American Games which will be held in Toronto, Canada in 2015.

"We expect that we will do much better in the next CAC Games in three years because that is the time that we expect to reap the results of this investment," Tomlinson said.

Jamaica, whose females are ranked seventh in the Pan American region, missed out on qualifying for this year's Pan American Games Championships after they were beaten by Cuba in the play-offs on home soil last October.

"Part of the national team's problems, when compared to the Cubans, is that our technical skills need to be improved," Tomlinson pointed out.

"We have also realised that nationally we have to get these standards up and that is why we had these coaching seminars," he said. "We also hope that everybody can now start playing hockey at a higher level and we will be able to have better national teams in the future," Tomlinson reasoned.

The local male team, which is ranked 15th in the region, will be the hosts of the Pan American Games' Club Hockey in November.

'We expect that we will do much better in the next CAC Games in three years because that is the time that we expect to reap the results of this investment.'