Dejected Lissek stood up in Seremban

04/04/2002

NATIONAL chief coach Paul Lissek went to Seremban in Negri Sembilan for
talent scouting on Tuesday, he waited for two-and-a-half hours and not a
single hockey player turned up.
Later he discovered that the National Sports Council (NSC), who were
supposed to arrange for a pool of players with the Negri Sembilan HA and
the schools council, failed to do their job.
"I am surprised that such a thing can still happen although the NSC and
the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) have said that they are dead serious
about developing the grassroots," said Lissek before starting the talent
programme in Klang yesterday.
Before Seremban, he was in Johor and while some of the young players in
the Bandar Penawar Sports School impressed him, his session in Johor Baru
did not turn out well because most of the boys did not even have the
basics.
This is not the first time Lissek has been stood up. Late last year, the
German went to Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan and nobody turned up there as
well.
The talent scouting programme, started in September last year to find
capable youth to fill up the vacuum left by ageing national players, have
regurlarly hit the wall head-long but Lissek still feels that there are
some talented youth waiting somewhere out there to be discovered.
"I would like to go to Seremban again, if possible next Tuesday, because
I do not want the boys to suffer just because some officials failed to do
their job," said Lissek.
So far, after going to about eight States, Lissek has identified 30
young hockey players and he is looking for at least 40 to be based in the
Bandar Penawar Sports School.
"After Klang today (yesterday) I will hold another session at the Kuala
Lumpur Hockey Stadium and hope to have at least 40 young players for the
final camp next week in Kuala Lumpur," said Lissek.
Yesterday in Klang, although the programme was hastily arranged because
the NSC sent the fax to a wrong number, more than 60 under-14 players
showed up and Lissek was more than pleased.
Meanwhile, Lissek also revealed that the MHF have yet to arrange a
meeting with MHL team managers to sort out the national training issue.
"It has been one week since I was promised that a meeting will be held
with the MHL team managers to sort out the days for national training, but
I have yet to receive any updates on the matter," said Lissek.
Lissek wants to hold national training at least twice a week, but since
the national players also have club duty to fulfill, he needs a consensus
before he can draw up a programme.
jugjet@nstp.com.my
(END)