Women’s Field Hockey

Game Plan acquired a new sport when Women’s Field Hockey ‘came aboard’ in April, bringing to 27 the number of sports participating in the program.

“As part of Game Plan, the most immediate effect will be much more emphasis on the national team program,” says Janet Beverly, technical director of the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey Association. She explains that, in the past, most of the effort has, of necessity, focused on base development.

Since 1977, CWFHA has been actively involved in developing a national program, including “some pretty thorough talent identification,” says Beverly. Identification will be completed in early July with the designation of 22 card athletes, selected from a national training camp in Vancouver under head coach Marina Van Der Merwe.

Canada has competed at the World Championship level since 1966, finishing 15th out of 25 countries at the 1975 Worlds.

Now, with a national team program, Beverly says an immediate aim is to finish in the top 10 at the 1979 World Championships with the “ultimate aim the sixth and final spot at the 1980 Olympics.” She adds that another 40 nations will also be aiming for that spot at Moscow, “but Canada has planned a good program and our team has every chance of making it.”

The developmental aspect of the program calls for travel beginning with a tour of Japan, Malaysia, and New Zealand in August, followed by the World Cup in Spain in August.

Next January, the team will centralize in Vancouver, in preparation for the World Championships to be held there in 1979.

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