Men-in-charge: Coach Kangot Awan (left) and team manager William Lee watches as the team tunes-up against Penrissen alumni team on Saturday at the Sarawak Hockey Stadium.
KUCHING: Sarawak’s U-16 team skippered by Luther Vandross Thomson in the National Sport Council’s Director-General Cup faces a hard task ahead after the draw was made Monday.
The Director-General Cup is an annual national Under-16 indoor tournament which started in 2009.
The Sarawak teens found themselves drawn in the same group which included Perak and Malacca, 2011 silver and bronze medallist, respectively.
“This is a tough group, definitely. Besides Perak and Malacca, there are also other very good teams like Kelantan,” said Sarawak Hockey Association official William Lee, who is managing the team.
He is hopeful that the team will rise to the occasion.
“I am confident the players will give their best effort,” said Lee.
The tournament is formatted as U-16 but each team is only allowed four U-16 players while two players must be U-15 and two must be U-14. It is mainly geared towards the development of basic hockey skills which also means that rules are different than the outdoor version.
“They will not be allowed to slap the ball or flick the ball. They are only allowed to pass the ball by pushing it and the flick can only be used when trying to score,” said Lee.
Sideboards will also be used and the stick used will also be different.
There has been some confusion as to the composition of the team.
“Actually, all the players are from Kuching,” clarified Lee.
SMK Penrissen’s strong hockey programme came to the fore again with seven of their players making the team.
Team captain Luther Vandross Thomson is from Penrissen as is fellow U-16 team-mates Dais Sharamdan Jini, Alaika Tawakalnalee Ruang and Kristafa Yunus Jugah.
Also from Penrissen is U-14s’ Andrian Gusup and Shawn Bradley Mathew.
U-15’s Ferry Filler Freddie is also from Penrissen while Ahmad Elayas Kipli, the odd man out, is from SMK Muara Tuang.
Skipper Luther and Ahmad Elayas are the only returning players from last year’s D-G Cup team.
The team did not have a good campaign last year and will be looking to redeem themselves when the tournament starts Tuesday.
Coach Kangot Awan pushed the team hard in a tune-up match on Saturday against a Penrissen alumni team led by Bukit Jalil grad Christnall Michael.
Perhaps it’s a sign of things to come as Kangot’s boys managed to edge the seniors who were probably not used to the restrictions of the indoor game.
“It is hard to say how we will do as there are some aspects of the indoor game that our boys are not familiar with,” said coach Kangot.Since the D-G Cup started in 2009, it has only involved boy’s teams and only this year will there be a girl’s tourney.
Sarawak will also be competing in the girls tourney with state coach Sivasubramaniam overseeing the team.
He will be assisted by Lisa Ludong, the former national team player.
According to the schedule, the girls take to the floor first Tuesday when they play Kedah at 8.25am.
The boys have their work cut out for them with their first match having to face a tough Malacca team. They will then have to play 2011 first runners-up Perak in the afternoon.
The boys will have a rest day on Wednesday but the girls will have a brutal schedule where they will have to play three matches.
The girls will play Negri Sembilan, Kelantan and Pahang on Wednesday before having a rest day on Thursday.
It will be the boys turn on Thursday when they have three matches to play against Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur and Perlis.
Both teams have a single match scheduled for Friday with the boys meeting Kelantan and the girls facing Perlis.
The play-offs will also start Friday with the finals scheduled for Saturday.