Janneke Schopman-Coached Odisha Warriors Pulling the Punches
Odisha Warriors have promised so much in the inaugural Women’s Hockey India League – the team coached by former Netherlands deep defender Janneke Schopman – has navigated the HIL journey with aplomb and has really looked a strong unit alongside Soorma Hockey Club.
The Odisha franchise have given a good account of themselves in the league finishing second in the points table. “We have grown in the tournament and have done a lot better game by game, and are playing as a team,” says Odisha Warriors chief coach Janneke Schopman in an exclusive interview with Hockey Passion.
The 47-year-old former stalwart, who was part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold-winning Dutch team, is excited at the way talented Indian players are jelling with the foreign players. We have very good foreign players like Yibbi Jansen, Freeke Moes, Kaitlin Nobbs, Jocelyn Bartram among others much like we have talented Indian players such as Ishika, Jyoti, Baljeet, Annu, Sakshi, Kanika among others. We have been able to find a perfect balance between the Indian strengths and the foreign strengths. The training environment is perfect with foreign players always willing to engage in knowledge transfer,” says Schopman, who is currently serving as the chief coach of the Germany women’s hockey team.
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Women teams have the bigger challenge of coping with ‘lesser training time’ since it is a four-team affair. “The downside of having four teams is that the tournament is now quite condensed. We have played so many matches in a short period of time, including travel and we haven’t had a lot of quality training time unlike the men’s league that is a little bit long and they have more time training time,” she makes her point.
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Schopan, who was also part of the Dutch team that won the 2006 World Cup at Madrid, believes the presence of four teams is a lost opportunity for domestic players. “There are so many talented domestic players and you can’t accommodate all when you have four teams. I’m sure these girls would get their opportunities as the league evolves over time and features more teams,” she says.
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The former Indian women’s hockey team coach is chuffed with the standard of hockey showcased in the inaugural league. “The standard of hockey is right up there with the best in the world with teams trying to play fast, attacking hockey. The injection of the of world-class strikes such Charlotte Engelbert, Freeke Moes and Charlotte Stapenhorst adds a lot of quality. Having the world’s best drag-flicker Yibbi Jansen only further raises the standards. There’s actually quite a lot of Indian players that can get up to that level too,” she signs off.
