Canada: Women’s Development Team travels to Japan for training matches

Canadian development side travels to Japan for practice tour and training matches

Field Hockey Canada is thrilled to announce the roster for the Senior Development Team heading to Japan October 16-23, 2024 for a training tour and a set of training matches.  

With leadership from Sheldon Rostron — Women’s National Team head coach — and other members of the Canadian high-performance team, this developmental side is comprised of primarily U23 athletes that includes some athletes who have a handful of senior caps or are training with the senior national team. Some of the identified athletes are not yet training with the national team program but are high potential players in Canada and have graduated from the junior ranks. The team adds some depth, experience and skill with a few national team players to provide leadership opportunities as well. 

Field Hockey Canada’s high-performance intention is to build a dedicated U23 team that will be able to provide an opportunity and platform to develop and grow the nation’s player base.

The team will train and do community workshops in Akaiwa City, where Canada has trained and played before, building on existing community relationships. Canada will also play against the U21 New Zealand side in a three-match set starting on October 19. 

The purpose of the trip is twofold:  

1. To establish opportunities for pathway projecting athletes to expose them to the experience of playing international hockey in a way that provide them more caps [official or unofficial. Through tours like this, Field Hockey Canada aims to rapidly enhance, simulate and grow the amount of game time and higher levels of playing to ensure Canada can compete globally. 
2. To maintain a close partnership between Field Hockey Canada and the City of Akaiwa and Japanese Federation. Canada has benefited greatly from this partnership in both the men’s and women’s program

According to head coach Sheldon Rostron, this U23 age category is crucial to bolstering the senior national team pipeline and is a key steppingstone in Canadian hockey. 

“The Field Hockey Canada NextGen environment creates an introduction to high performance, creating critical pathways in conjunction with our national championships. As such, U16 and U18 are the first steps into national processes and programs. U21 becomes the next steppingstone but also is limiting, thereafter we see these athletes either remain in Canada or leave for NCAA programs. 

 A U23 tour like this is a part of the process of recapturing athletes inside or outside of the national programs, identifying talent or athletes that have been in our programs and maintaining a trajectory towards the senior national setup and creating development.” 

Rostron said, ultimately, the success of a tour like this doesn’t come in wins and losses on the field, but rather in building the pathway and engaging in a process that will create and nurture a larger and higher ability player pool in Canada. 

“There are no trophies to be won during this tour but competing, instilling a wining culture and pushing boundaries are all part of an elite pathway and our intention is to re-engage this process again with this group as we sharpen our plans and programs to start gearing up for sustainable future success!” 

ROSTER