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Pic: The late S. Satgunam (MHF secretary).
The JHL made its debut in 1995, after a joint-effort by the
National Sports Council (Datuk Mazlan Ahmad), Nestle (Datuk Dina Rizal)
and the now defunct Malaysian Hockey Federation (the late S. Satgunam)
came up with the initiative to have a league for the juniors.
THE MHC-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League (JHL) starts today with double
champions Tengku Mahkota Ismail Sports School playing what could be
termed as a warm-up against their sister side SSTMI Juniors.
It was
not by chance that the two are meeting first, as the Malaysian Hockey
Confederation (MHC) had bowed to team managers pressure to avoid what
could be a goal-scored fix if the two teams played at the tail end of
the JHL.
It is also no secret that in Divison One, the battle for
titles would be among three teams namely SSTMI, double runners-up UniKL
Young Guns and Bukit Jalil Sports School.
The other five;
MSSSPP-USM, MBI-Anderson, Petaling Jaya CC, SSTMI Ju niors and newly
promoted Malacca High School; would play the spoilers role when given
the opportunity.
In Division Two, there are two groups with Group A
having nine teams and they are Anderson Juniors, MSSS Kelantan, 1Mas
Penang, Matri, SM Sains Tun Azlan Shah, Kedah HA Juniors, MSSS Perlis,
Nur Insafi and Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman Ipoh.
Group B will have
Tunku Besar Secondary School, SMK Datuk Taha Gemencheh, Olak-PKT, SMK
Padang Midin, MSSS Johor, Politeknik KPT, Kuala Langat, BJSS Juniors,
KL Sports School and Tunas Muda Pahang.
SSTMI won the double by a
whisker on both occasions as they edged UniKL by one goal difference
after being tied on 22 points for the League title.
And in the Overall title final, SSTMI could only edge UniKL 2-1.
"After failing to land any title last season, UniKL Young Guns will
continue to pursue its dream to win the Double this season. However, to
achieve our target, we must beat SSTMI as they are again the clear
favorites with their golden boy and top scorer of JHL 2012, Shahril
Saabah still eligible to play alongside their very experienced
supporting cast," said UniKL team manager Faiz Isa, who has been
promoted from his assistant role last season.
Former team manager Amir Azhar is now the interim president of UniKL Hockey Club.
And to achieve their goal: "We need to overcome the penalty corner woes
of last season and also continue our strength in getting goals from
open play."
UniKL, into their fourth season, believe in developing
players and that is why they have selected a young side with 16 out of
the 22 still available for the next season.
"This is the youngest
Young Guns ever assembled with an average age of 17.8. Only six re 19
years old (the cap for JHL), while 16 are eligible for next season. The
youngest are 15-years-old Kavinash Panicker and 16-years-old Shahriful
Aqmal.
The JHL made its debut in 1995, after a joint-effort by the
National Sports Council (Datuk Mazlan Ahmad), Nestle (Datuk Dina Rizal)
and the now defunct Malaysian Hockey Federation (the late S. Satgunam)
came up with the initiative to have a league for the juniors.
And
its growth has been phenomenal with many national players being scouted
from the JHL who went on to play for the country and became household
names.
Just to mention a few...Chua Boon Huat, Nor Azlan Bakar,
Logan Raj, Keevan Raj, Jiwa Mohan, Jivan Mohan, Rodhanizam Radzi, Razak
Saidin, Amin Rahim, Roslan Jamaluddin and Madzli Ikmar.
And this year, a record 27 teams will see 594 players trying to impress the age-group scouts.
MALAYSIAN Hockey Confederation (MHC) president feels players should not quit when the going tough, especially if they want to represent the country in World Cups and Olympics.
He was commenting on Junior World Cup trainee Dangerous Lee from Sarawak who threw in the towel via an SMS to coach K. Dharmaraj because he felt he no longer could compete with his team-mates for a spot in the New Delhi tournament in December.
"I will leave it to the coach to decide on the next course of action on the player who called it quits 12 months from the World Cup. And my message for the others who aspire to don national coulours is not to give up so easily," said MHC President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
Tengku Mahkota suggested counseling Dangerous Lee, but the Sarawakian had quit the national juniors for the third time in three years and it looks like coach Dharmaraj has had enough of him.
"First of all if Dangerous Lee wants to fight for his spot back in the training squad again he must come and see me personally because sending quit SMS is an insult to everybody who has been preparing the Junior World Cup side for the last two years.
"He must apologise to his team mates for running away when push came to shove and maybe then, I will send him for counseling and mental training (with National Sports Institute) and see what happens.
"But first of all, he must come and meet me and explain why he quit and not hide behind SMSs," said Dharmaraj.
Dangerous played in the Sultan of Johor Cup and then the Obaidullah Gold Cup in Bhopal at the end of last year, and that was when he chickened out after seeing how his skills are nothing compared to India club players.
Dangerous then sent an SMS to the coach which read: “Coach I will not be attending training tomorrow morning and I hope coach accepts my decision to pull out of the (World Cup) training squad.
“I feel that I can’t make progress anymore as I can’t compete with others. Sorry coach..tq.”
There are 27 players in training for the Junior World Cup in December in New Delhi. Malaysia qualified by becoming the Junior Asia Cup champions in Malacca.
On another matter, Tengku Abdullah said no action will be taken against Sabah for pulling out of the Junior Hockey League just three days before the tournament starts.
"Sabah had a legitimate reason to withdraw from the JHL as their Education Ministry did not want to release players, or find new schools for their players for a period of two months.
"No action would be taken on Sabah HA as they had a team, but could not play for a valid reason," said Tengku Abdullah.
SABAH withdrew from the MHC-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League (JHL) just three days before the tournament starts, blaming it on their Education Department.
The JHL saw a record 28 teams registering, and Sabah’s no show has thrown the Division Two Group A tournament fixtures into turmoil.
They were supposed to start their JHL campaign against PHA-Anderson Juniors at the National hockey Stadium this Friday.
“We are unable to field a team as the Sabah Education Department has rejected our request to field school boys in the JHL,” said Sabah HA Secretary Aftar Singh.
“It is not easy for teams from East Malaysia to play in the JHL as there are also logistics issues, like arranging for the players to attend classes while away.
“We regret the decision to withdraw and understand that the MHC (Malaysian Hockey Confederation) can take action against us, but we ask for understanding as this is beyond our control.
“There are limited players in Sabah and try as we did, we just could not find replacements as we received the no tification from the Education Department today (yester day).”
Sabah became the Division Two champions in their maiden JHL appearance in 2010. Then, they were based in Pan damaran, Klang.
However, they did not field a side for the last two years. Division Two will now have nine teams in Group A and 10 teams in Group B.
There are eight teams in Division One.
Dangerous Lee (left)..
DANGEROUS LEE, 20, Sarawak’s hope of becoming the first from his state to play with the senior hockey side, threw in the towel yesterday, citing fear of competing among his peers.
And his SMS to coach K. Dharmaraj sent the latter’s blood boiling, as the coach has great hopes on him to carry the Malaysian flag in the December Junior World Cup in New Delhi.
“I am totally peeved as well as feel being let down by Dangerous because he was among the front-runners in the training squad, to make the grade for the Junior World Cup.
“This is the third time he has thrown in the towel since he started studying in BJSS (Bukit Jalil Sports School). So enough is enough as I will not accommodate a player that does not have a heart,” said Project 2013 coach Dharmaraj.
Dangerous played in the Sultan of Johor Cup and then the Obaidullah Gold Cup in Bhopal at the end of last year, and that was when he chickened out after seeing how his skills are nothing compared to India club players.
“He was feeling down in Bhopal because he felt that the India players were simply too far ahead of him and he could not cope with their pace. He spoke to me about it then, but I did not think he would quit the World Cup training just because of that,” said Dharmaraj.
Dangerous SMS to the coach read: “Coach I will not be attending training tomorrow morning and I hope coach accepts my decision to pull out of the (World Cup) training squad.
“I feel that I can’t make progress anymore as I can’t compete with others. Sorry coach..tq.”
Dharmaraj blames Dangerous’ lame attitude to the soft upbringing he received after he joined BJSS in 2009.
“When I first saw him in action he had the fire in his eyes and wanted to become the first Sarawak player ever to play for the national seniors.
“However, he lost the edge and the fire was doused as BJSS only allowed him to play in the lower divisions of the Malaysia Hockey League.
“If they had released him to play for other teams in Division One back then, he would have become a hardened player now and not quit after getting a few knocks in Bhopal.
“The blame is in BJSS taking their so-called step-by-step approach which makes their players become soft and have a school mentality even after joining national juniors train ing.
“I hope the school changes their approach and does not make softies out of the Project 2017 players who are studying there right now,” said Dharmaraj.
JUNIOR Hockey League (JHL) Division One double champions Tengku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (SSTMI) were slapped with a triple bogey even before they could start their title defence this season.
The JHL fixtures will not only see the champions play a day before the official start of the tournament, but also three matches in three consecutive days.
SSTMI start against SSTMI Juniors on Jan 10 to avoid fixing goals scored at a later stage, then against Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) the next day, followed by Malacca High School.
However, SSTMI coach Wan Roslan Wan Rahman is not one to complain, and is taking the challenge with an open mind.
“The plan is to defend both out titles and we have been training for a long time to make it into a reality. And even though the JHL Competitions Committee has slated us to play three matches in three days, I do not want to complain, as I believe my players are up to it,” said Wan Roslan.
Playing against their sister team SSTMI Juniors would be a breeze, but Wan Roslan expects BJSS and UniKL to give them a hard time.
“It is never easy playing against another sports school, so our opening weekend could make or break our quest. After that I also expect stiff competition form UniKL, who played bridesmaid to us on two occasions last season,” said Wan Roslan.
It was sheer frustration for UniKL Young Guns who lost the League title by one goal difference after being tied on 22 points with SSTMI.
And then, SSTMI beat UniKL 2-1 in the Overall title final.
“We have lost six players to age from the previous side, but still have JHL top scorer Shahril Saabah (18 goals last season) with us to execute the penalty corners.
“We also have three others who can combine with Shahril to do the damage during penalty corners and that would be our strength this season to defend out titles,” said Wan Roslan.
A record 28 teams have registered for the JHL since its inception in 1995, with eight playing in Division One and 20 in two groups in Division Two.
Six teams from Division One and the Group A as well as Group B champions of Division Two will play in the quarter-finals.
