PANAJI
Conan Fernandes and Karl Gomes have some high profile plans to uplift Goan hockey and what better way then to provide employment avenues and career pathways to Goan hockey players.
With a view to give their plans a new direction and with interests of Goan Players in mind the two took up coaching the Goans Hockey team January this year armed with a letter with Goans Hockey.
Besides Karl and Conan, others who were part of the coaching set up were Manoj Pednekar, Riyaz Kambali, Aviraj Madgaonkar and Ayyaz Khan.
The letter signed by Goans Hockey secretary Farrel Furtado E Gracias mentioned that all the players are to report to above officials with Conan given the overall charge and all of them worked under the overall supervision of Goans Hockey official Warren Dias,
But a few weeks into the coaching camp the two walked away from the coaching duties over the fielding of outstation players.
Manoj Pednekar, Riyaz Kambali, Aviraj Madgaonkar and Ayyaz Khan stay put with the caching set up.
Manoj is the manger of the team, Riyaz is the coach of the team while Ayyaz is one of the team members of the team.
“We had told the Goans Hockey official that we will be in the coaching set up only if the players are all Goan players and with the single assurance we took up the coaching of the players, but things did not go that way,” said Conan Fernandes, a former goalkeeper who has played in the Mumbai league and works with Bank of India.
“A few weeks into the camp Goans Hockey brought Sports Authority of Goa coach Elitter Fernandes and they (Goans Hockey) insisted on outstation players which we did not agree and we conveyed to Goans Hockey President Abhay Bhambikar and Secretary Farrrel Furtado e Gracias that we will not be interested to be part of the team if outstation players are brought in and fielded in the Goans team at the expense of Goan talent.
Conan said he had told some of the players who are jobless or doing some odd jobs about the possibility of coaching in the North Goa schools through a coaching scheme rolled by Mavericks club with technical guidance of Olympians Joaquim Carvalho and Merwyn Fernandis.
“Yes, we had told the players of the possibility of paid coaching jobs in schools and the career pathways for them,” said Conan.
