Announcement

Canada's men's field hockey team island-bound, set to host clinic and raise funds gearing up for Pan Ams

Posted by Ali Baggott on Jun 06 2013 at 08:42PM PDT in Season 2013-14
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VICTORIA, B.C. – The Canadian men’s field hockey team is venturing across the pond to host a one and a half our skills clinic and demonstration for the field hockey youth in Victoria. Recently, the Canadian contingency were shorted $900,000 in Own the Podium funding, forcing the men to re-direct their focus towards fundraising for the time being.

Canada’s last Olympic appearance was at the 2008 Beijing Games, where the team finished 10th overall. Only two Canadians from that Olympic squad are still with the team including Tsawwassen’s Mark Pearson, who grew up playing on the island in the Victoria Junior League, as well as Vancouver’s Scott Tupper, also the captain of the team. The fresh-faced team is now looking towards the 2016 Rio Olympic Games but before that will have a number of hurdles to jump.

University of Victoria Vikes Sam Jones, Matt Sarmento and James Kirkpatrick, also the lone Victoria native, will be among the squad that will visit the island. The trio have re-located to the mainland for their summer training, while Sarmento picked up his first international cap at the World League Round 2 tournament hosted in early May in St. Germain, France. Jones and Kirkpatrick have been a part of the training squad preparing for a pair of upcoming Ontario-hosted tournaments.

From Aug. 11-17, Canada will compete in the Pan American men’s cup, hosted in Brampton, Ont., and will return again in July 2015 when Toronto hosts the Pan American Games , which is also a direct qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.

The squad will be at UVic’s field hockey pitch on Friday, June 21 from 5:30-7:00 pm to run their clinic and demo session. Players, parents and interested fans and coaches are all encouraged to attend for a suggested minimum donation of $25. No registration is required. In addition, donations will continue to be accepted online and fully tax receipted at: http://bit.ly/MNT-BigPush

For media enquiries or event information, please don’t hesitate to contact Ali Lee at 250-686-5000 or alilee05@gmail.com

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