ZIMBABWE Under-18 girls’ hockey team coach Tendayi Maredza says the upcoming tour of Namibia is vital for the development of upcoming players.
Hockey Association of Zimbabwe are set to field their Under-18 A and Under-16 A boys and girls’ teams in a test series against Namibia from July 6 to 8 in Windhoek, Namibia.
The matches will be played at Windhoek High School Davin Astro.
The teams have already begun their preparations and Maredza, who is in charge of the Under-18 girls’ team, said such games are important for exposure and preparing the players to graduate to the next level.
“Preparations for the Zimbabwe, Namibia junior series to take place in Windhoek from the 6th to the 8th of July have been going well. This weekend we had training sessions with all the teams that are going to be participating in this series.
“Four teams are going to be going from Zimbabwe, which is Zimbabwe Under-18 A boys and girls and Zimbabwe Under-16 A boys and girls.
“They are going to be playing against Namibia and this series, it’s a very good series for these juniors to develop their skills and to prepare them into the next step which is the Zimbabwe Under-21s.
“I think at junior level we have actually done well in hockey and I think with more of these games, this is going to help our players because we always lack international exposure.
“So hopefully this will be a good relationship between Zimbabwe and Namibia and hopefully we can include South Africa in the years to come,” said Maredza.
Some of the achievements at junior level include the qualification by the Zimbabwe’s Under-21 women’s team for the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup to be held in Chile later in the year.
Zimbabwe secured their spot during the Under-21 Junior Africa Cup held in Egypt, in March.
Zimbabwe will be making their fourth appearance at the event.
Maredza said they are also going to play Zambia in August.
“We are also going to play Zambia in August. So it’s good for our junior players to get more game time.
“It’s good for our junior players to play different internationals which is going to help them to develop their skills more and prepare us when we now compete in the regional tournaments or the international tournaments,” Maredza said.
Tour coordinator Carla Jones said this is an opportunity for the young players to participate in an international series.
“This is a great opportunity for our junior players to earn a cap for their country as well as for Zimbabwe hockey as a whole to have junior sides participating in an international series,” said Jones. – The Herald
