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  • 9 months ago
The National indoor hockey coach Rafael Govia says more has to be done for the sport if this country wants to match strides with the powerhouses.

The coach made the strong pronouncement following the National team's return home from the World Cup in Croatia, where they finished last.
Transcript
00:00Trinidad and Tobago's men's indoor hockey team retained home on Tuesday night from the
00:04World Cup in Croatia, with the team finishing at the bottom of the table, that being 12th
00:09position.
00:10During a small reception for the players at the Piacco International Airport, coach Rafael
00:13Govaya made it clear more should have been done for the team.
00:17This trip was a tough one for all of us, you know, it started off with a lot of ups and
00:25downs in terms of the facilities and so on, and you all obviously know in my reports and
00:30so on how I operate, I would be that little misery to keep prodding and being a pest to
00:41people to make sure that we get training times.
00:43Govaya was full of praise for his players and the staff for doing their part with the
00:47resources that were available.
00:49According to the coach, if a proper structure is put in place, that could go a long way.
00:53I mentioned about ensuring that coaches and their players are given everything that's
01:04possible for our athletes to perform at the highest level wherever we go, and not just
01:12get funding for them to say, okay, we're sending you to Pan Am, we're sending you to our qualifier,
01:20we're sending you to World Cup, and you have the funding to go and perform.
01:24I think there's a lot more than that is needed for our athletes.
01:28Sharing similar sentiments was team captain Darren Cowie, who stated that the other countries
01:33had players who specialize in indoor hockey, whereas TNT had to build a team comprising
01:37those who play both indoor and outdoor hockey.
01:40I felt it was a very high competition, extremely competitive, obviously, because we don't get
01:47as much international exposure.
01:50We depend on actually getting there in competition to realize the level of competition that we
01:56did face.
01:58Talking to the other players and coaches and technical staff, they train year-round for
02:03this, not only with their national teams, but also in their clubs, they have high-level
02:08competition in their club leagues.
02:10A lot of them travel to Europe to play competitions in European clubs.
02:15TNT lost all their games at the World Cup.
02:18Despite that, Cowie said there were some positives for the Red, White and Black.
02:22I think the highlight would have been knowing that, I think every single game, aside from
02:26the Croatia game where we were kind of deflated, I think every other game it felt like we were
02:31in it.
02:32We had early chances to take the lead.
02:35In some games we did take the lead and held the lead for long periods, I'd say by like
02:39third quarter, middle third quarter, going into fourth quarter is where we let the game
02:43get away from us.
02:44It's just that discipline aspect.
02:46I would say the highlight is knowing that we could have run with those teams, despite
02:50the scoreline at the end and despite not finishing in a higher rank than we would have expected.
02:57Cowie isn't a coaching, but came out of retirement just to captain the TNT side at the World
03:02Cup.
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