FHC is proud to announce the tournament roster to compete for Canada at the upcoming 2013 Junior World Cup to be held in Monchengladbach, Germany from July 27th to 4th August.
The Final 18 has been finalized following an intense preparation period, including the National Identification and Development Camp in April, the U21 Argentinean Training Camp & Test Series in May and the recently completed Senior Nationals.
The team contains no fewer then 12 players that have already gained senior caps of which 10 are currently touring Ireland with the Women’s Senior Team. The average age of the team is 19.6 years of age which is still particularly young for a JWC Team. The team contains no few then eight players 19 year of age or younger.
Commenting on the selection, Senior National Head Coach, Ian Rutledge stated “The Junior World Cup marks a critical development event for any program and I am excited by the opportunity for our next generation athletes to be benchmarked against their age-group peers internationally. I am quietly confident of our prospects and extremely optimistic of the health of our National program.”
“Due to the large cross over of our athletes, the integration of both the JWC and Senior group has been extremely effective for both groups and we have been able to efficiently manage the development and enhancement of the entire squad as such”, Rutledge continued.
Rutledge’s confidence in his young charges is well founded and the players should be very optimistic about their chances, exhibited by their very recent form, especially against the highly fancied Argentinean U21 Team. All four matches were hard fought, close battles, with three of the games being decided by only one goal. Adding the teams recent success at the Senior Nationals, defeating a classy BC team in the Final, should have the team buoyed for the tournament.
Ironically the young Canadian team will play Argentina in the first match of the tournament at 9.00am on 27th July. Along with Argentina, Canada find themselves in Pool B with China (28th July) and South Africa (30th July).
Commenting on the depth of the squad, Rutledge added, “You know you have a good team on your hand when you are leaving deserving players out”. As such, Rutledge has named the following three players as Shadow Squad members: Alyssa Bull (ONT); Sarah Keglowitsch (BC) and Sophia Walia (BC).
Field Hockey Canada would also like to acknowledge the support of Own the Podium and Sport Canada respectively. Fifteen players in the JWC team receive carding support from Sport Canada. “Without the finical support from OTP and SC, we would not be able develop or provide a quality daily training environment for our WNT program, which is the single biggest factor in fast tracking and accelerating our development towards Rio.” said Rutledge.
Besides the current senior tour of Ireland, the team will re-commence training from 1st July ahead of departure on 21st July. The team will the train in Germany as well as playing England in a practice match prior to their first match.
Again, congratulations to the following 18 athletes athletes that have been chosen to represent Canada at the 2013 JWC in Monchengladbach, Germany from 21st July to 5th August:
1. Jessica Buttinger ON
2. Rachel Donohoe BC
3. Bea Francisco BC
4. Hannah Haughn BC
5. Karli Johansen BC
6. Caashia Karringten BC
7. Ashley Kristen BC
8. Kathleen Leahy BC
9. Lauren Logush ON
10. Sara McManus BC
11. Stephanie Norlander BC
12. Priya Randhawa BC
13. Carolina Romeo AB
14. Maddie Secco BC
15. Natalie Sourisseau BC
16. Holly Stewart BC
17. Sydney Veljacic BC
18. Amanda Woodcroft ON
HEAD COACH: Ian RUTLEDGE
ASSISTANT COACH: Robin D’ABREO
MANAGER: Diane GILLIS
PHYSIOTHERAPIST : Elliott Usher
VIDEO ANALYSTS: Stefanie SLOBODA
