Diamond Mineral Water Hockey Festival … GCC teams hungry for more success

Nov 20, 2016, Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ry-for-more-success/

Gabriella Xavier

Diamond Mineral Water Hockey Festival … GCC teams hungry for more success

Nov 20, 2016, Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ry-for-more-success/

Defending women’s champions of the Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey festival, Pizza Hut GCC, has more than just a title to defend. As the team that boasts the best record in the festival among women’s contenders, winning the festival a record 7 times, and representing Guyana’s best chance to hold off the powerful Canadians, much rides on the shoulders of the national champions.

The team this year is strengthened by the return of top midfielder Marzana Fiedtkou who has just completed her university education at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Fiedtkou attended the university under a hockey scholarship that would have exposed her to four years of the game at the competitive USA varsity level. National defender and top talent Trisha Woodroffe returned to the game recently to strengthen the side which also features the exciting trio of strikers Kerensa Fernandes, Gabriella Zavier and Sonia Jardine.

The team enters its final stage of preparation and face arch-rival the Woodpecker Hikers in their opening fixture on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile 2015 finalists, the Bounty GCC men, who lost last year to the 6ix of Canada after defeating them in the pool round, have a lot of ground to cover before the beginning of this year’s festival.

The Bounty boys fell heavily on both occasions to the Pepsi Hikers and once to Old Fort in the recent GT&T National championships, a tournament where they usually produce their best form of the year.

The GCC side now have to go back to the drawing board and redefine their game plan for the Festival if they are to return as finalists this year. The team is going to expect much from junior nationals Kareem McKenzie and Daniel Hooper who were both notably absent from their recent line-up, but it is likely to take more than this to overcome the opposition.

The GCC vets, known more popularly as ‘Vintage’ have been enjoying their usual run of success, but have failed to produce top results in the Festival in recent years.

National vets MVP Dwayne Scott will be their key player to watch in this division along with midfielders Devin Hooper and Alan Fernandes and they form a formidable attacking trio of former nationals.