As summer’s go, 2018 has been pretty special for Burnaby Lake Field Hockey Club president and premier division player Adrien d’Andrade.
He more than doubled his international cap total in games played for the Canadian men’s field hockey team. The 27-year-old bought a home. And he and his fiancée got married.
It’s all good and getting better.
Considering that his first step to the national stage was in 2012 and saw him get in just four senior international games the first four years, the past 12 months have delivered on all the work he’s put in.
“It’s been a long time. I made the jump from the junior to senior team in 2012, but from there it’s been a bit of a struggle,” the PoCo resident recalled. “I’ve always been in the mix but never really cracked the starting lineup or got into the group of 16 or 18 who go on tour. In the last six years, I’d only played four international caps, so there was a lot of training and a lot of work put in and very difficult in not seeing a lot of reward.”
But that changed earlier this summer, where he drew into the starting lineup against a Pakistan A national team and China during a 10-game series in the Lower Mainland in what was a huge opportunity after years of pushing for a role as part of the senior men’s development squad.
Canada came away with an 8-1-1 record over the 17-day schedule, out-scoring Pakistan 24-1 and China 16-8.
“It went really well. We had some good results while the teams were here with 10 games, and having home games was a rarity for us,” said d’Andrade. “The overall experience was good. I’ve been playing with the team for a long time but not getting a ton of game experience, so it was nice to get a consistent grouping of games under my belt in a short period of time.”
The team also included Burnaby’s Gabe Ho-Garcia, as well as New Westminster’s Brenden Bissett.
Having picked up the game at the age of 10, d’Andrade has patiently pushed his skills to the max, putting in the hours to garner playing time with the men’s team.
But during the previous Olympic cycle, 2013 to ’16 in Rio, veteran players naturally recommitted to the program for one more shot at competing at the Olympic stage. Since then, however, a few spots opened up and d’Andrade has made the most of his chances.
Last year, he was part of the Canadian men’s national indoor team, and the lone player from outside of Ontario that was selected to compete at the indoor Pan Am Cup.
This year, the focus is on the World Cup, which kicks off in late November when Canada takes on Belgium. It will lead to the Olympic qualifiers in the new year, as the Canadians look to advance to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
While he works towards that goal, d’Andrade is spearheading the Burnaby Lake club through his third year as president. Although the club has not yet been successful in getting the city to build a water-based field hockey turf – thus forcing a number of local teams to practice outside of the city and forgo Burnaby tournament opportunites – he sees a lot of progress and growth within the sport in Burnaby.
“We are still managing to grow and develop our youth, it’s just unfortunate that not all of it can be done in our home city.
“The city does have some fantastic facilities and we’d love for a hockey turf be part of that.”
He spreads the faith as well as a coach, both at the club level and with the provincial team. It’s one way of giving back while sharing his passion for the sport.
“I love the sport. I do a lot of coaching and giving back to the kids because, realistically, it was the coaches in my life growing up that got me to where I am today,” he said. “I know coaches can have an impact outside of sport and that’s something I really enjoy.”
With a chance to represent his country, d’Andrade is ready to make the most of it. The game has played a big role in his life and he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.
“It’s really what I love to do. We talk about it a lot on the team. It can be sacrifice, but we like to call them choices and we really do choose to play over doing other things. It’s something all the guys love, and I’m no different.”
