Monday 28 June 2021

Two Weeks Of No Ice

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that Summer Olympiads cause this blog to shift in another direction. The Tokyo Olympic Games start on July 23 this year as the 2020 Summer Olympiad will finally take place in Japan, and the Summer Olympics always feature field hockey as one of the sports played at the Games. It's one of the more exciting sports at the Summer Olympics, and there's always some intrigue and drama in the games, especially when the world powers in the sport compete against one another. Canada's national men's team has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, so I'll be keeping an eye on these games just as I've done for past Summer Olympiads! There will be previews as we near, so stay tuned for those!

Both the men's and women's events will be played out of the Oi Hockey Stadium, a 15,000-seat venue in the southern portion of Tokyo and just north of the Haneda Airport. Field hockey pitches have relatively little shade and Oi Hockey Stadium is no different as the temperatures in late July in Tokyo often climb above the 30°C mark. Teams will need to be aware of this when they take the pitch, but fans should also ensure they have lots of water on-hand in order to cope with the potentially searing heat.

Canada is sending its men's team after qualifying against Ireland in the most unbelievable way, and the UBC Thunderbirds are sending a pile of players to Tokyo with the Canadian squad. It should be noted that I had mentioned that there were only three Canada West field hockey teams and all three were women's teams. That technically is true of interuniversity play, but the UBC men's team competes in the Vancouver Men's Field Hockey League against teams such as the University of Victoria, Burnaby Lake FHC, West Vancouver FHC, the Vancouver Hawks, and the Surrey Lions FHC to name but a few. With strong showings annually in the VMFHL, UBC is well-represented on the Canadian team!

Here is the roster that will represent Canada in Tokyo at the Summer Olympics! Position, league team, and the number of appearances internationally for Canada are all shown on this chart.

TEAM CANADA
Name Position Team Caps
Antoni Kindler
Goalkeeper
West Vancouver FHC 98
Brendan Guraliuk
Midfielder
UBC 7
Brenden Bissett
Midfielder
Vancouver Hawks 139
Fin Boothroyd
Midfielder
UBC 23
Floris Van Son
Forward
AMVJ 35
Gabriel Ho-Garcia
Midfielder
Burnaby Lakers 133
Gordon Johnston
Defender
Vancouver Hawks 179
James Kirkpatrick
Midfielder
West Vancouver FHC 100
Jamie Wallace
Forward
UBC 46
John Smythe
Defender
Vancouver Hawks 121
Keegan Pereira
Forward
India Club 182
Mark Pearson
Forward
West Vancouver FHC 277
Matthew Sarmento
Forward
Vancouver Hawks 121
Oliver Scholfield
Forward
Vancouver Hawks 71
Scott Tupper
Defender
West Vancouver FHC 315
Sukhi Panesar
Midfielder
United Brothers 74
Taylor Curran
Midfielder
West Vancouver FHC 185
David Vandenbossche
Goalkeeper
Gantoise 2
Dave Carter
Goalkeeper
Vancouver Hawks 194
Brandon Pereira
Defender
United Brothers 61

If you're asking what the colour coding and italicized names means, italicized names are reserves. Yellow are traveling reserves while red are non-traveling reserves. All of them helped, in some way, Canada to reach its second consecutive Olympic field hockey tournament since doing so in 1984 and 1988, and I will respectfully recognize them for their efforts!

It should also be noted that every single player except for two call the province of British Columbia home. There is not a single player from the other nine provinces or three territories on the field hockey squad, proving just how dominant BC likely is at the sport within our own borders. The two men who aren't from BC are Floris Van Son who hails from Netherlands and David Vandenbossche who calls Belgium home. I should also make note that head coach Pasha Gademan and assistant coach Craig Sieben are both Dutch as well while assistant coach Andre Henning is German!

These are the men who will proudly wear the maple leaf on their chests in Tokyo from July 24 to August 5 at the field hockey competition for Canada, and I'm excited to see them make a little magic like they did against Ireland in qualifying for the Olympics. Winning a medal won't be easy based upon the field who qualified for Tokyo, and Canada would be considered a longshot to reach the podium. That being said, anything can happen and it's why they play the games, so making the dance is the first step in reaching those Olympic dreams for these men!

I'll be cheering when the tournament opens, so here's hoping we see some great moments from Team Canada! GO CANADA GO!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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