While playing their last matches of the tournament, some of the leading players of both teams told us how playing is like in their countries and about the effort made to participate in this type of tournaments.
Passionate about the sport, they try to bring their teams forward and grow despite the results.
Panamanian Ademir Montenegro is 25 years old, and started to play when he was 14.
Since that moment, he trains whenever it is possible, and helps bring in more young players to participate in the sport.
“This is the first time we were able to play on an official synthetic turf pitch. We played on natural grass pitches or indoor pitches in our previous tournaments. However, playing on an official pitch, in an official tournament, is playing real hockey. We feel this is the right way to play it,” said Ademir.
Ademir is studying his last year to become an Electronics and Telecommunications Engineer, and says that due to the international tournaments he is playing lately, he had to quit his job.
“I’m a fire fighter at the Cloé Airport where I live, and train when I can, on my free days,” says Manuel Correa # 9 of the Panamanian team.
“Playing on this pitch was an exciting experience. We’re not able to play like this back home as they don’t lend us the pitches. We were able to practice in a small pitch before coming and gather for five days. However, we don’t have the training and support we need. We’re aware that the teams develop with each tournament, but we can’t grow as we wish. We don’t have the support we need to grow. Some of the players lost their jobs because of the last tournaments we’ve played. After coming back from the Indoor Tournament in Honduras, some of the players found they didn’t have their jobs anymore. True enough, the Panamanian Hockey Federation provide as much as they can, but we need much more to compete in a high level tournament”, said Manuel.
One other challenge Panamá and Ecuador have to face is getting optimal clothing for these competitions.
“In Panama, we have to buy many things on the internet to be able to travel and have the required equipment to play,” they said.
“I am playing with an equipment of a developing team, and it’s not the adequate. I wish we could have more support to be able to train better,” said Ecuadorian goalkeeper Lincoln Palacios. Perhaps, he is the youngest of the team, but with great experience and an outstanding personality in the pitch, organizing his players and promoting hockey out of it.
Student, and only 17 yeras old, he tells us the family had to move to be able to play hockey.
“We used to live in Santo Domingo, but I and my family moved to Manabí, where we’ve recently played a tournament. We don’t have a pitch there, we mostly play on indoor pitches. That’s the reason why this team is not experienced in this type of pitch. Despite what I’ve said before, I think we’ve grown a lot and gained experience since the Bolivarian Games. Nevertheless, without a pitch it’ll be very difficult to grow. We find it difficult to get together to train. I think that the Ecuadorian Hockey Federation is not coordinated with the Olympic Committee”, said Lincoln.
Despite being only 20 years old, Yeremy Bombon is one of the older players of the Ecuadorian team.
“I play hockey since I came to Ecuador. Some players changed sports, but I still and keep on promoting the sport and play hockey, despite the limited availability of time to practice,” said Yeremy meanwhile he watched Brazil defeating Uruguay.
“I would have liked to play against Brazil, even if you lose, you acquire a lot of experience. We lack experience because we don’t have a synthetic turf pitch as there are always other sports in our country to prioritize. It takes a lot of time to travel to get together and train.
Before coming to this tournament, we trained on an indoor pitch as we were traveling to Honduras. Finally, they told us we were not competing at The Indoor Tournament, and had to change the pitch to be able to come here. This was a great experience for us,” said Yeremy.
Moved by the passion for hockey, and limited as they are because of the situation in their country, these players represent their nation the best they can. From the inside, playing and learning. From the outside, working to make more athletes join the sport, and fighting to get the necessary support to be able to grow as they hope they can.
