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!