National silver medalist senoir team

Lady humming Birds strike Silver

The Lady Humming birds got the silver, after a hard fought match. With no score at the half Jamaica dug in for another hard fight in the second half. A field goal from Curlyne Wynn goal in the 61st. minute sealed the issue for Trinidad and Tobago.

President Victor Tomlinson interview

The Hockey News had an interview with President Victor Tomlinson recently about the state of hockey in Jamaica and its future in Jamaica. This is what he had to say:

Q. Mr. President as your administration starts a second term what has been the past year been like?

School -Well run leagues, but we need more schools involved. With Hockey being offered a major at (cont'd)

C. L. Environmental sponsored under 21 Club League begins on June 30, 2007

The Jamaica Hockey Federation starts a new phase in its development of the sport with the introduction of our Under-21 club league to run alongside its Premier League for 2007 . The competition will be contested in two divisions, men and women, with all clubs (except the JDF) participating in the premier league, fielding teams in the league.

C. L. Environmental will sponsor this inaugural competition allowing the offering of cash prizes for clubs finishing first, second & third, best goalkeeper, highest & second highest goal scorer and most valuable player (MVP) in both divisions.

This league was designed to extend the competition time for players who participated in the school's league, increase the feeder system for clubs and generate more interest in this age group by having them playing more games against their peers.

Women National Team Call out

The Jamaica Hockey Federation has called out the Women's Senior National Squad to begin preparation for the Pan American Cup Championships in 2009. The preparations will be led by Coaches Leonardo Camejo Martinez and Christine Bartley, GK Coach Dana Mae Crawford and Team Manager Annmarie Smith.

This young squad will have its first international assignment at the West Indes Cup to be held towards the end of this year in Trinidad and Tobago. Here they will see competition from Barbados, Guyana and the hosts.

Training begins immediately on Mondays & Wednesdays 6-8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 7-9am.

List of Invitees:

Mona claim men's hockey title

Courtesy of the Jamaica Observer:
Paul Burrowes
Monday, May 21, 2007
Mona opened their netball campaign yesterday on day three of the UWI Games, slamming Cave Hill 64-18 at the Mona Bowl.

FIH officer's visit boosts local hockey

Courtesy of : Paul Burrowes, Observer writer
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
and PAHF website

TOMLINSON... local hockey boss

A fresh air is blowing through Jamaica's hockey, fanned by development programmes and international competition.

The sport's world governing body, FIH, has also extended its hand, perking up hard-working president of the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) Victor Tomlinson.

The recent visit of Jorge Querejeta, regional development officer of FIH, has given the local sport a boost with hopes....
(con td)

Doctor Birds play for bronze

After a hard fought battle the Doctor Birds lost 4-3 on penalties, to Puerto Rico. The score at the end of regulation was 3-3.

Cuba dubbed Guyana 10-0 to take the gold.

Tournament schedule

Final standings

Final Standings

2007 Pan American Games

Schedule announced for 2007 Pan American Games July 15 to 25, 2007 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

NEWS RELEASE - April 20, 2007

The Pan American Hockey Federation has announced the schedule for the 2007 Pan American Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 15 to July 25, 2007.

Each team will play three pool matches before the cross-over and classification matches for final rankings. The winners of the 2007 Pan American Games qualifies for the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing (China), August 8-24, 2008. Men's teams ranked 2 to 5 and women's teams ranked 2 to 6 will be invited to one of the three Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (February to April 2008).

For the Men 's competition, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago will make up Pool A while Canada, Chile, Netherlands Antilles and USA will compete in Pool B.

For the Women 's competition, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay will make up Pool A while Canada, Cuba, Netherlands Antilles and USA will compete in Pool B.

Men leave for Venezuela

Announcement of team for ALBA Games, Venezuela .

The Jamaica Hockey Federation is proud to announce that with the sponsorship provided by GUARDIAN LIFE, the Senior Men's hockey team will travel to Venezuela to participate in the ALBA Games leaving April 26th.

The following persons have been selected for the team:

Competitions begin on the 29 th of April and the opposing teams are confirmed to be Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Venezuela and Uruguay.

Club development by PHAF

The Jamaica Hockey Federation in conjunction with the Pan-American Hockey Federation has invited Ana Maria Vinué de Romanelli from Argentina. Over the past ten years she has been involved in the development coaching courses, development workshops, Olympic Solidarity Coaching Courses, Youth Promoters, Club Development. She will be conducting seminars in Jamaica April 20th - 22nd, 2007. While here she will be focusing on club structure, how to create a club & club planning. development , and recruitment just to name a few. All seminars will be held the Sports Development Foundation , 31 Phoenix Avenue Kingston 10.

• Friday 5-8.30pm
• Saturday 9am-8pm
• Sunday 9am-2pm.

Click here for weekends itinerary

CAPTAIN MILTON RICHARDS MEMORIAL HOCKEY TOURNAMENT

After two days of exciting games of hockey, three winner were crowned. In the men's division Raiders took the men's title by blowing away their competition Sharpe's 7-1. This is no shame for Sharpe's as the were out classed by a more experienced team, Raiders, who have been playing together for many years.

In the women division Sharpe's outscored St. Andrew hockey club to gain their title. St. Andrew did not have any answer to Erica May-Chambers fast moves and hard hitting balls. The young Andrew team will definitely be a force to be reckon with in the future, but to today the day belonged to Sharpe's.

In the veterans division, Phat Thursday white out played their teammates Phat Thursday black to take the veterans title. This they did after defeating Gray Dogs from the USA, in the semi finals.

Under 16 Finals

Boys

On Friday March 23, 2007 new comers Papine defeated Campion to take the boys under-16 Inter-Secondary high schools title.

Girls

After being rainout on Thursday March 22, 2007 the under-16 girls had their day on the field on Monday March 26, 2007.

Both Papine, and St. Andrew and their chance to go ahead early but squandered their chances. At the end of regulation the score was nil all. The over -time ended with the same score nil nil. After some every tense moments for both teams St. Andrew high finally prevailed 3-2 on penalties.

Sharpe's Rebels women's hockey team returned from the Barbados Indoor Classic on Monday, February 5, after losing to Raiders of Trinidad and Tobago 2-0 in the finals.

They played well in the preliminaries winning all their matches. The results were as follows: vs Empire 3-1, vs UWI 7-0, vs Cumbemere 4-0, vs All Stars 7-0. This took them to the semi finals where they played Deacons of Barbados , winning 1-0. Sharpe's had the highest number of goals in the competition, scoring 22 overall. Erica May-Chambers received the trophy for the highest goals scored with six goals to her credit.  

The competition consisted of ten female teams, eight from Barbados , one from Trinidad and Tobago and the Jamaican team, Sharpe's Rebels and eight male teams. All teams were composed of past and present national players. The members of Sharpe's team were as follows:

President Victor Tomlinson talks about his vision for 2007

Compliments of the Jamaica Observer...

With no major international qualifiers this year, the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) will be active in establishing a financial base and running its competitions in a more professional manner, said president Victor Tomlinson.

Tomlinson... financing the greatest challenge

Over the years the JHF has been wracked by discord, with the men and women lacking unanimity in vision, on the one hand, and infighting among executives on the other hand.
There has never been a working together for a common goal, with the various egos getting in the way.

"Persons in the federation were not in full agreement on many issues, for example, development, operational, and as a consequence, inadequate numbers of persons coming forward to serve," said Tomlinson, a former national player.
But Tomlinson, a Munro College old boy, has somehow been able to build a bridge and select persons able to work together on the seven or eight committees of the JHF.

With the federation just under $2 million in debt and needing another $3 million to train and send teams to major tournaments, the 51-year-old Tomlinson admits that financing is the greatest challenge.

"The concept that we're looking at is to get a sponsor on board for five years," said Tomlinson, who has been involved in the sport for some 35 years.

The funding is not only for national teams but for "domestic competitions and development programmes".
"We need to expand the critical mass of players (more active schools) and there is need for a paid secretariat," he said.
"The ability to get big sponsors depends on how popular the sport is and the popularity of the sport increases with big sponsors, so it's a chicken-and-egg situation.

"We're starting more competitions and asking for smaller sponsorship dollars to build the visibility of the sport, then raise the stakes to sponsors. And there are other challenges.
"We are also organising ourselves along more professional lines by adopting wherever possible all the FIH (International Hockey Federation) rules in our activities."

For the development of the sport, Tomlinson said "youth development programmes in Kingston, May Pen and Mandeville are being organised for the summer, and we're preparing more coaches - great work being done at GC Foster - to get more schools involved".

He said the outlook for the year looks positive.
"We are moving closer to a consensus on the development needs and direction of the federation."

As the JHF looks forward to the Pan American Cup early next year, it will use the remainder of the year to prepare by "selectively attending tournaments in the region to give our team the requisite playing experience for 2008," Tomlinson said.

The hockey boss said he would like to achieve this year "the rekindling of the competitive spirit that exists with all hockey players and an expansion of the number of players".
He believes that "having foreign teams playing on home surf with our teams putting up credible performances" would capture the imagination of Jamaicans and attract premier sponsorship.