‘Get us ready to get there’

MICHELLE HOLT, technical director of the Jamaica Hockey Federation, has played, coached and managed the sport she loves for more than four decades.

On Sunday, with Jamaica’s men successfully through to third place at the inaugural Hockey 5s Pan-American Cup, Holt’s eyes welled with tears of joy. She wasn’t alone. All around her at the Mona Hockey Field, the sport’s aficionados were exultant.

When she recovered her composure, Dr Holt revealed that she believed the team would place in the top three and qualify for next year’s Hockey 5s World Cup.

“When I looked at the draw, I went to these young men and I said, three places go. We know USA and Trinidad are teams that are very good. That third place is for Jamaica,” said the woman, who coached Jamaica to gold in the 1990 CAC Games.

“I asked the boys to believe,” she expounded.

“I’ve been known as someone who is a ‘goatmouth’, what I say is going to happen and everybody believed and we’ve been working towards it. So the satisfaction, the deep satisfaction of seeing these young men whom we’ve been working with from 2018 come to this position now where we’re qualifying for the World Cup, the feeling is just amazing,” Holt added, beaming with national pride.

She was right. The USA edged Trinidad and Tobago for the gold medal and Jamaica survived a shootout thriller against Guatemala to reach the semis before the historic third-place play-off.

Captained by goalkeeper of the tournament Ajani Burton and coached by former national player Duvaughn Henlon, the unit is the first-ever Jamaican team to qualify for a Hockey World Cup.

Henlon, a member of the 2017 team that won the CAC Games qualifier in Kingston, acknowledged Holt’s role in his transition from player to coach. Asked if the World Cup qualification made his retirement worthwhile, the affable Henlon bellowed a laugh and replied, “Somewhat. I love to play but I think Dr Holt saw the greater picture. Even when I was a player, I was a coach. I was a coach of the Andrews ladies so coaching has always been a part of it and to make the transition, it has been rewarding.”

Burton will lead his troops to Muscat, Oman, in January for the first staging of the Hockey 5s World Cup and Holt expects the team to make waves.

“We want Jamaica to just get onboard. Hockey 5s is exciting. Anyone who’s been here this week has seen it. We are going to make waves in Oman. We’ve going to get these boys better. We need sponsors’ help to get us there and to get us ready to get us there,” the hockey veteran said.