BHUBANESWAR : Even as the Indian women’s hockey team were on an exposure trip to Great Britain earlier this month, their US counterparts were doing something more important — taking part in a fundraising golf tournament to kickstart their season. While teams like India don’t struggle to raise money for sports like field hockey, the US invariably needs it to keep their dreams alive. In fact, before the Rio Games, where they finished fifth, the team organised campaigns so as to get its support staff as well as two reserve athletes to Brazil, according to the Washington Post.
“The golf event (it was called ‘To Tokyo and Beyond’) is a great way to raise money,” Janneke Schopman, US women’s head coach, said. “One of the parents of the players organise and we are more than willing to take part in it. For us, it’s a way of getting some more money for the overall programme, we are always looking out for opportunities like this.”
Therein lies the challenges for US in the two-legged Olympic qualifier against India on November 1 and 2. And that’s before you take into account US’ unique problem of ability to retain players. The absence of a league structure in the country means most players retire by the time they turn 22. “The college player pool is very large, but after they graduate there is no opportunity to keep playing. That means many retire when they are 22 as they don’t have the ability to grow,” Schopman, an Olympic gold medallist with the Dutch team, added.
While they successfully fought past this system to qualify for the Olympics the last three times, there is a sense that India might end that run this weekend. “Rani (Rampal) is a very experienced player who is strong, the forward line with Vandana (Katariya) is very dangerous and they have a lot of pace. In the backline, Grace (Deep Grace Ekka) is a key player and they also have one of the best drag-flickers in the world in Gurjit (Kaur),” the Dutchwoman added.
While she refused to speculate about the outcome of this match, she hoped that US would start punching above their weight within the next 10 years. “The organisation (USA Field Hockey) is working hard to make changes growing the sport from grassroots and implementing a high-performance culture. I believe USA can be a consistent top-10 contender in the women’s international game, however we do need to make those changes for that to happen.”Punching a ticket to Tokyo could expedite that process.