The
Evolution of Saints Hockey Club
Hockey was first introduced at St.
Satanislaus College in 1973, by former national captain, Saints old boy and
current chairman of the board of governors Chris Fernandes. Mr. Fernandes
molded an outstanding team of youngsters who went on to play unbeaten on a
school tour of Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago later that decade. Those
players eventually formed the GCC Hockey Team and would go on to dominate local
hockey during the 80's and 90's. Captain of that Saints side, Mr. Andy Goveia
teamed up with Troy Peters during the 90's to form, what would eventually be known
as, the Hikers Hockey Club.
The Hikers Hockey Club has since adopted
St. Stanislaus College and has been conducting hockey classes for students of
the school for a number of years now. As a result of this programme quite a
large number of students continued playing hockey even after graduating from
the college. On the 2nd of February 2012 a group of past and present students
of St. Stanislaus College took the bold step of establishing the "Saints
Hockey Club".
Since its formation the Saints Hockey Club
has become one of the most vibrant hockey clubs in Guyana. The club is made up
exclusively of current and former students of Saints and it competes in all
local junior and second division tournaments. The club has shown steady improvements
in its short time of existence, the under 21 boys team placed second in their
very first tournament, the 2012 Hikers Hockey Club Junior Indoor. The St.
Stanislaus College school team also improved dramatically winning the 2010 Guyana
National Inter School Competition and the Global Technology Inter School
Competition in 2012 and 2013. The club’s
greatest achievement to date however was placing second in under 19 boys
category at the 2013 Caribbean Kids International Hockey Festival, which
featured local clubs as well as teams from Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago.
In addition to making an annual
presentation at the first form orientation ceremony, this year Saints Hockey
Club sponsored and coordinated an inter-house competition for students of the
college. The tournament was played over a three week period in the college’s
forum, during the school’s lunch break and it was well received by the general
student population with huge turn outs of supporters for the respective houses.
One of the main values of the club is
encouraging a balance between academics and athletics. Testimony to this fact,
two players; Mr. Leroy Jack and Ms. Ayeisha Boodie were recently awarded
academic scholarships to study medicine in China and Cuba respectively. Some
additional players like Miss Charlyn Elliot and Miss Theressa Copeland were
also recently accepted to medical school at the University of Guyana and in
French Guyana respectively, while Mr. Devon Scott is presently in his second
year of medical school at UG.
Some of our goals for the future are,
becoming a fully fledged first division club, establishing a scholarship programme
for outstanding student athletes and taking our junior teams on international
tours.
We view this club as one of the few methods
of encouraging old students to remain involved in their school from the time
they graduate, this involvement will continue to increase as these individuals
mature both personally and professionally.
Robert
Fernandes
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