Although Sara Goodman captained Canada to a gold medal at the Pan American 2021 Women’s Junior Field Hockey Pan American Championships and a berth in the Junior World Cup, later this year, she won’t be part of the Junior World Cup team in South Africa this December.
The Pan Am tournament made an exception for 21-year-old players who missed the event that was originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but the organizers of the Junior World Cup aren’t making the same allowance.
Nevertheless, Goodman is still thrilled with the accomplishment of winning an unprecedented gold medal at the Pan Am tournament in Chile.
READ MORE: Duncan’s Sara Goodman guides Canada to Pan Am field hockey gold
Canada defeated Uruguay 1-0 in the gold-medal game, having already locked up a berth in the World Cup with a guaranteed top-three finish.
“It felt amazing to be able to win gold and make history as the first Canadian junior team to win the Pan American tournament,” Goodman said. “We knew the final match was going to be a hard battle and that it would be a great challenge to break down Uruguay’s defence, but we just stuck to our process and capitalized on a short corner in the final quarter of the game.
“Although I will be too old to compete at the Junior World Cup in South Africa, I am very proud to be apart of such an amazing team that qualified for the tournament. We believed in our preparation and ability as a team to find success despite being ranked fourth coming into the tournament and I think that this win is very exciting and inspiring for our program in Canada.
“Moving forward I will be focusing on pursuing my goal of competing with the senior national team and cheering on the team that will play in the Junior World Cup.”
Goodman could still end up cheering on some other Cowichan Valley products, as Birkley Anderson, a graduate of Shawnigan Lake School and current teammate of Goodman’s at the University of British Columbia, and Niki Leech, who graduated from Frances Kelsey Secondary and now plays goal for the University of Guelph, were non-travelling reserves on the national junior team who could be promoted to the travelling squad for the Junior World Cup.
READ MORE: Junior national career comes full circle for Duncan’s Sara Goodman
