Santiago Tarazona is an up and coming star with the Argentina men’s hockey team, as well as a budding entrepreneur in the fashion industry, with his own line of sportswear about to be launched.
Already selected as part of the senior training squad by the national head coach Carlos Retegui, in little less than a month Tarazona will be part of the U21 squad coached by Mariano Ronconi, contesting the Junior Pan American Championship in Toronto, Canada. We caught up with Tarazona and Ronconi to find out how the player and coach were feeling ahead of the challenge.
“I first started playing with the U21 team two years ago. My first game was in 2015 in the Sultan Cup in Malaysia against Australia,” says Tarazona. It was a match that Argentina won 1-0 and in that tournament, Argentina finished a creditable fourth, losing out 3-2 in the bronze medal match to Malaysia.
For Ronconi, the 2015 Sultan of Johor Cup played an important role in seeing how Argentina’s young side compared to the rivals they will potentially meet at the Junior World Cup. For some, this presumption that Argentina will be in India for the JWC later in the year may be a little immodest, but with Argentina yet to be beaten in the continental qualifiers in any past edition, Ronconi’s confidence seems well placed.
"We saw the level we are at compared to the other top teams in the world. We are very pleased with our performance because we believe that no team beat us by too great a margin and we played some very good games. We know that if we improve some aspects, we will be a very tough team in the World Cup and I do not think we will be easy to beat.”
The main improvements that Ronconi wants from his players is a greater level of focus on their own strengths and less concern about the opposition. “When we have the ball, I want us to play our game. When our opponents have the ball, we want to stop them playing their game.”
And Ronconi and his team are working their charges hard to prepare them for the next few months. Since he joined the U21 squad, Tarazona has seen his life change to revolve around hockey. He trains with the U21 squad from Monday to Thursday, but within that time he also fits in a club training session. Then it is with the club again on Fridays before matches at the weekend.
“Coming up to the tournament in Toronto, the workouts are definitely becoming more intense and specific,” he says. “As well as our everyday training routines, we have to start preparing ourselves mentally for what’s coming.”
And yet, Tarazona nearly didn’t become a hockey player. He initially went to the local sports club with his sister to play football (soccer), while she trained with the hockey team. However, one day, when Tarazona was just eight years old, one of his sister’s friends suggested he pick up a hockey stick and the young player hasn’t looked back since. He says that his one ambition is to play hockey for the senior squad and, if that doesn’t work out, he would like to travel to Europe and play the game professionally there.
He is very conscious that hockey remains a very poor relation when compared to football, but he is also aware that the recent success of the senior men’s team, including a bronze in the 2014 World Cup, has meant hockey is raising its profile among the sports-mad public.
As the U21 squad spend a lot of their time training with the senior players, the younger members of the Argentina international hockey community are very conscious of their status as role models to players of the future and the influence they could have. But, while women hockey players in the country have superstar status, the men still have a way to go. Tarazona believes that is gradually changing. “Some clubs are beginning to install water pitches, so that makes the sport grow a lot, for men and women. It becomes more of a spectacle. But it is also thanks to the men’s senior team. As they move up the FIH rankings and win more games, they are gaining a much bigger international profile.”
Apart from his burgeoning career as an international hockey player, Tarazona is also doing his bit in the world of fashion to raise awareness of the game. With two friends he is releasing his own brand of sportswear – a project he is “very excited about.”
Fashion empire aside, Tarazona’s passion for his sport and his country is clear and he emphasises just how much putting on the blue and white shirt means to him: “To be honest it´s a feeling like no other, when you’re singing the anthem with your team, listening to the crowd, it´s a very unique experience. You get that feeling in every match you play, it doesn’t ever go away.
“And when I get on the pitch, I believe I’m the type of player that runs the pitch and the game a lot. I am always trying to make the whole team play as one. And of course, we all try and try make things simple. I think we have a great team with a fierce defence, armed with explosive and skilful players.”
His words will be a joy to his coach’s ears. Ronconi asks for, demands even, passion from his players. “All this time, all this sacrifice and training over the years, we are trying to instill professionalism, effort, desire. I want to see 18 players running for the team and not stopping.”
If you ask the Argentina coach what makes his team so successful, his answer is simple. It is all about good preparation. “We play a lot of high level tournaments so the players are used to the pressure; and for this tournament, we have been working in a systematic way for the past two years doing concentrated training sessions each month. This has ramped up to a higher degree now and we will keep this intensity up throughout the whole year.”
The U21 squad also benefits hugely from training alongside their senior team colleagues. “Today we have a lot of interaction between the senior and the junior squads,” says the coach. “We try to train the same and play the same and sometimes train together. This means that young players who move to the senior team can make a smooth and gentle transition between teams. For the juniors, you can see the difference in their play as soon as they start mixing with the seniors.”
So with Argentina ready and confident about the challenge ahead, who does Tarazona think might run them close for the gold medal?
“I believe that all of our matches will be difficult, but I think that the USA and Canada will be the strongest ones to play against.”
Argentina’s opening match at the Junior Pan American Championships is against Trinidad and Tobago on 20 May.
