Men’s Pan Am Youth Blog – Day 12

February 9, 2010

A Good Initiative from CANADA – Helping Local Mexican Youth Field Hockey

Our first of two days off between games started off bright an early with a 9 am breakfast of eggs and pancakes.

Awake, nourished and ready to go – we headed to the field for our practice. With the game against Argentina coming up fast the coaches decided to work on some set plays to prepare us for our next match.

After the practice was something special and rare for all of us. This area of Mexico has just got their first sand based field hockey pitch. In a short period of time the Hermosillo Field Hockey community already has attracted 250 boys ranging from 5 years old up to young teens. All items imported (including field hockey equipment) into Mexico are expensive due to the low buying power of the Mexican peso. Making it very difficult for these young Mexican athletes have accessing the basics field hockey equipment – like sticks. With this knowledge, Coach Aaron asked some of the parents to bring down some sticks and other equipment. We got the opportunity to support the local Hermosillo Field Hockey community with some field hockey equipment.

The young Mexican players were ecstatic, that many of the Mexicans started playing with the sticks right away. One of the younger Mexican player, maybe 5 years old, Clifford (this is the name we called him) took great pleasure in dangling the Canadian team with his brand new 36.5 inch Grays GX 3000. This was a sight to behold for us as we got a glimpse of the idea of lending a helping hand can make a huge difference in other peoples lives. This was a heart warming moment for all of us and there was a smile on each and every Canadian player face.

The smiles grew wider as Giulio and Brenden got their photos taken with several chicas (Mexican for pretty girl).

Feeling good and fresh we returned to a lunch of sandwiches on the pool deck.

Following lunch we had a yoga stretching session to keep our body as Aaron says, well tuned athletic machines.

Next we enjoyed watching the Chile game recap and prepared for the next game vs. Argentina.

As part of the tournament nourishment recovery – we had a good steak dinner with some of our parents.

Day 12 was a meanful memorable day for all of us.

Gordie Johnston #24 and Tony Sidhu #20

Canadian National Men’s U-17 Field Hockey Team Member