KUCHING: After a lapse of six years, Sarawak is all set to take part in the 8th Girls U-16 MSN Milo Hockey Championship to be held in Kuala Lumpur from Dec 12-20.
CHALLENGERS: State women hockey assistant coaches Nelyana Aling (left) and Pamela Tia (right) with Sarawak shadow squad trainees in jubilant mood during centralised training at Sarawak Hockey Stadium yesterday.
Speaking to thesundaypost yesterday, Sarawak Women Hockey Association (SWHA) head coach Sivasubramaniam revealed that the trip is made possible through the initiative and strong support from the SWHA president Datin Mary Sadiah Zainuddin.
“It is the first step of a long journey in order to achieve the state past hockey success at national level competitions,” he added.
Sivasubramaniam disclosed that most of the 27 girls selected and attending centralised training would be eligible to play in 2014 and 2016 Sukma, and added that they would make the core players of the state squad.
According to the coach, the majority of the regulars are from SMK Tebakang and SMK Bau, while others are raw talents from SMK Sains, SMK St Colomba in Miri and SMK Sibu Jaya.
Sivasubramaniam was especially elated with the new find in Falessca Francis of Belaga, Alice Sakai from Lawas and Mayrin Nayai, a goalkeeper from Sibu Jaya.
“The three new recruits despite the fact that they have not being exposed to any high level training or matches, I discovered that they possessed the tactical and technical talents of a hockey player and if given time to expose them to competitive games, they will become skilful and are the players to watch in next Sukma,” expressed Sivasubramaniam.
“Even though we had not set any target to finish on the top three spots in the tournament, I am optimistic that with Mayrin Nayai as goalkeeper, we would be able perform well. Judging from past experience, our team lost most of our games mainly due to poor goalkeeping,” added Sivasubramaniam.
For the battles ahead, Sivasubramaniam is assisted by a coaching team comprising Nelyana Aling, Pamela Tia, Christina Jaggiu (goalkeeper coach), Beatrice Sawin while former national player Lisa Ludong acts as team manager.