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U.S. Field Hockey Men to Compete in Inaugural Americas Cup

Americas Cup Schedule & Results

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The U.S. Field Hockey Men's National Team will get its first chance to qualify for the 2002 World Cup when the team travels to Havana, Cuba for the inaugural men's Americas Cup, June 22-July 2.

            The 11-team tournament features Olympic Games-bound Canada and Argentina in addition to host Cuba, Barbados, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the U.S. The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2002 FIH World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while the next three teams in the final standings are expected to advance to the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Scotland next year.

             “It is a realistic goal,” says U.S. coach Shiv Jagday on his team's chances for a top-four finish.   “We have a very young but very talented and hard-working group of players. If we play to even one-half of our talent and potential, we should have no problem. It will depend on how much we believe in oursselves and our ability to reach our goals.

"The Americas Cup is very important for us," adds Jagday.  "It gives us the opportunity to play in the World Cup Qualifier and really, really confirm that we are taking steps in the right direction."

            The U.S. will compete in Pool B of the tournament with Mexico (June 23), Jamaica (June 24), Canada (June 26) and Chile (June 28). The Americas Cup field is similar to the makeup of the 1999 Pan American Games where the U.S. finished fifth behind gold medallist Canada, runner-up Argentina and bronze medallist Cuba. Chile placed fourth in the Pan Am Games.

            However, the U.S. team will have a much different look from the Pan Am Games. Only eight members of the Pan Am team return for the Americas Cup team including 1996 Olympian Steve Danielson (San Diego, Calif.). Rinku Bhamber (Simi Valley, Calif.), Patrick Cota (Camarillo, Calif.), Shawn Hindy (Westlake Village, Calif.), Shawn Nakamura (Camarillo, Calif.), Gus Reed (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Mike Schanafelt (Camarillo, Calif.) and goalkeeper Andrew Duncan (Edmonton, Alberta) are the only other members of the team with international experience.

            The young U.S. team averages just 20.7 years of age and includes 15-year-old Patrick Harris (Moorpark, Calif.), 17-year-old William Molenar (Ventura, Calif.) and 18-year-olds Daraspreet Kainth (Fullerton, Calif.) and Jarred Martin (Saratoga Springs, N.J.). Twenty-year-olds Logan Hargett (Ventura, Calif.) Koijan Kainth (Fullerton, Calif), Daljeet Sagoo (Fullerton, Calif.) and Hans Wittneberg (Moorpark, Calif.) round out the 16-member Americas Cup team.

                “When I look at some of the experienced players like Shawn Nakamura, Steve Danielson or Shawn Hindy or  younger players like Rinku Bamber and Mike Shanafelt,  I see in them the desire to do well and the will to succeed,” says Jagday. “But this feeling has to come from all 16 players. We have to put that feeling into their play on the field. If we can do that, then we will be successful.”

The U.S. last appeared in a World Cup Qualifying Tournament in 1989 when the team hosted the event in Madison, N.J. The team competed in a World Cup preliminary tournament in 1996 in Cagliari, Italy where the team placed 10th in the 14-team tournament and did not advance to the World Cup Qualifier. Danielson and Hindy are the only remaining players from the Cagliari roster.

      The under-21 members of the team will get a rare opportunity to compete in two tournaments with World Cup implications in the same year. The younger athletes will take part in the Pan American Junior Championships, October 6-22 in Santiago, Chile where the team will be looking to earn a spot in the 2001 7th Men's Junior World Cup in Hobart, Australia.

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