North Shore field hockey fans will get a chance to see Canada’s national men’s team in action for the final time on home soil before the team heads to Rio for the Olympic Games.
Team Canada will play four exhibition games against the United States in the Lower Mainland July 6-10, with matches on July 6 and 9 taking place at West Vancouver’s Rutledge Field.
It’s not often that the North Shore gets to host national team matches in any sport, let alone a team that’s just weeks away from taking part in the Olympic Games, said Geoff Matthews, technical director of the West Vancouver Field Hockey Club.
“They leave for the Olympics on the 20th of July – we’re basically getting the last opportunity to see them before they go,” said Matthews, adding that the club has hosted national team games at Rutledge before but none of them generated the kind of buzz that this series is getting. To quantify that buzz, Matthews said that in past events they’ve put out a call for young players to act as ball boys for national team games and usually they get around six volunteers. This year they got 60 volunteers.
“It’s tenfold what we’d get for a normal international match, which is mind-blowing but really exciting at the same time,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of people there.”
Fans will get a chance to watch some local talent compete as the Canadian squad will have a strong North Shore flavour to it. Five players from the West Vancouver Field Hockey Club were on the 20-man roster for a recent European tour. The roster will be pared down to 16 for the Olympic tournament but WVFHC players Scott Tupper, Mark Pearson and Taylor Curran all appear to be safe bets to make the final cut. Tupper, a Vancouver native, is the team’s captain while Pearson, a Tsawwassen product who has suited up for the West Van club since his teenage years, is one of the national team’s most experienced players. Dutch-born Floris van Son, a dual citizen who recently joined the Canadian national program, and national team backup goalkeeper Antoni Kindler also play their club hockey with WVFHC.
Curran, an Argyle grad, is the only North Shore native in the lineup and the 24-year-old midfielder has become a fixture in the side over the past three years.
“He’s really composed,” Matthews said. “He’s a smart guy, he’s an intellectual guy. Really quiet, but just goes about his own business. Reliable. … He’s one of those guys who’s not going to let you down too often. He’s not going to be one of the world’s best players, but in terms of consistency and what he brings to the team, he’s someone they can trust.”
The exhibition games at Rutledge Field demonstrate the close working relationship between the national team at the WVFHC, the largest field hockey club in North America. The club has allowed the national team free use of Rutledge as a training ground and, in exchange, national team players have been coming out to practices and clinics with the club’s youth teams. The sessions with national team players make a lasting impression on the club’s young players, said Matthews.
“They don’t know their junior coach’s name the whole season but they remember the national guy who came to one practice,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been really positive for the club. … It gives them something tangible, something that they can see is achievable. It makes it real and it makes it something that the kids aspire to. They love having the role models on the field that they can play with and learn from.”
The national team conjured a few miracles just to make it to the Olympics. There are only 12 Olympic spots available, and the Canadians, currently ranked 19th in the world, needed an epic shootout win over fourth-ranked New Zealand to secure their berth. The Kiwis went up 3-1 in the shootout but missed two chances to seal the deal. The two teams then traded punches through nine rounds of sudden-death penalty shots. Video of the dramatic shootout – which took close to 30 minutes to complete – can be found on the Field Hockey Canada website.
“It was pretty intense,” said Matthews, who has worked as a coach in the national team program. “Just to qualify for the Olympics was a massive achievement.”
The stakes won’t be nearly as high when the national team hits the pitch in West Vancouver but Canada will be looking to fine-tune their play before going hunting for Olympic hardware. Both Rutledge games, July 6 and 9, begin at 7 p.m. Parking at the site will be extremely limited so fans are encouraged to find alternative ways to get to the field.
