Scottish juniors ready for the 2011 Volvo EuroHockey Under-18 Championship
Scotland’s junior women hockey team is eyeing for the 2011 Volvo EuroHockey U-18 Championship that is to take place in Utrecht, Netherlands from July 11 to 17.
The team’s head coach, Colin Clarke, foresees the team to perform well at the competition and stated, "The girls have worked extremely hard in training since November on preparing themselves physically, tactically and mentally for this tournament.
The hard work has paid off with encouraging results recently against France, Germany, England and Wales but we know that it will be a step up in intensity to compete at this level."
On contrary to his belief, Clarke also admitted the fact that the team will have to face intense competition at the championship. However, he was relieved that the team luckily is in Pool A and not amongst the tough nations like England, France, Germany
and Spain, which are placed in Pool B of the championship.
Clarke expects his currently eighth ranked team to finish up at the sixth place and said, “It will be a learning curve for the players, but also a great positive experience for the players, particularly when they will have ambitions that target inclusion
in the senior squad over the next few years.”
He ensured that if the team follows the tactics, training and practice given to them during their preparation, the results will turn up as desired.
The coach has named eighteen players for featuring the competition, which includes Hazel Hall, Mairi Drummond, Kirsty Hill and Fiona Plain from CALA along with Heather Howie, Bethan Mann, Kirsten McIntosh and Jennifer Hendry from Glasgow Western.
The team will open the championship with a match against Belgium followed by Ireland versus Holland on the very same day.
In the meantime, the junior men’s side of Scotland will be on a tour to Milan, Italy for the EuroHockey U-18 Championship II with an aim to make it into the top round of the 2012 European Youth Competition.
The European competition will be conducted under the format of round robin in which the top two teams of the two pools will advance into the semi-finals and finals, fighting for a medal win, whereas the bottom two teams will just play for places from
fifth to eighth position.
The Under-18 men’s coach, Graham Dunlop, announced a twenty-member team for the job which includes Gregor Hirst, Aidan Black, Scott Lindsay, Peter Baldwin, Stewart Coghlan, Ross McIntyre and Craig Morton.
The team will be playing against Italy, Austria and Ukraine, while representing Pool A, whereas Pool B includes Switzerland Wales, Poland and Czech Republic. It will be interesting to see how Scotland performs in these tournaments and meet the expectations
of their coach and fans.
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