It’s been a busy year for Port Coquitlam’s Adrien d’Andrade.
As the 27-year-old defender for Canada’s national field hockey team embarks for Bhubaneswar, India, where the sport’s World Cup is being played beginning Nov. 28, he hopes it will also be his best year.
Already, d’Andrade has doubled his international cap total with the Canadian national team. He also bought a home and he and his fiancé got married.
It’s been a big payoff so far for the work he’s been putting in since he first climbed to field hockey’s national stage in 2012.
“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 Dr. Charles Best secondary grad said of his slowly-evolving international career that earned him action in just four games in his first four years. “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. 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 last summer, where d’Andrade 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,” d’Andrade said. “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.”
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 where Canada will open the tournament next Wednesday with a match against 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 helping grow the game at the grassroots. He’s been the president of the Burnaby Lake field hockey club for three years.
He also spreads the faith 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.”
• Canada is ranked 11th in the world heading into the tournament. The highest the Canadian team has ever finished in the World Cup is eighth, in 1998. The team last qualified in 2010, when it placed 10th.After its match against Belgium, Canada will play South Africa on Dec. 2 and then the host team from India on Dec. 8.
