Richmonds Chris McAlpine helped Canadas junior national 2017 target team complete an impressive three game sweep of the United States U17 team in international mens field hockey action last week in California.
The Canadians rolled to 5-1, 5-0 and 9-1 victories. McAlpine was among the goal scorers in the opening game of the series.
After months of travelling across the country in search of the most promising up-and-coming field hockey athletes under the age of 17, junior mens national team coach Mathias Ahrens selected a group of 21 athletes for the 2017 target team.
The program is a stepping stone to the junior national team and provides high performance coaching within a high performance environment. This teams main targets are the Youth Olympic Qualifier in 2014, the Pan American Junior Championship in 2016 and the 2017 Junior World Cup.
It was good to see such high-quality talent from across the country, said Ahrens. The team improved from game to game and showed in the last game a fine performance, leaving their USA counterparts far behind. The players will now go into their winter training, focused on improving their fitness levels. Our next international appearance will likely be in the spring.
