08/08/2007 Nelson Alves

Mundo do Hóquei: The question that the Portuguese visitors of the website will do: who is Darrel Pearce?
Darrel Pearce: First of all, I was the English team captain for the last four years. The only reason I was not in Montreux World Championships was do to an injury.
In England Federation, I’m working with Carlos; I’m his “number two”. I’m the head coach of the women’s team, and I also help with the development of the under’13, under 15 and under17 teams. When Carlos is not around, I manage the training sessions.
I’m also the main coach of senior men’s team in Bury Roller Hockey Club, which is now, probably, the second most successful club in England… and it’s getting bigger and bigger all the years!
I’m also a self-employed person, so I spent most of my time with my passion, which is this sport. I give a lot of my time, a lot of my money to roller hockey! (Laughing)

MH: How much time are you linked with women’s roller hockey?
DP: I’ am evolved with girls roller hockey for the last two years, and since I get evolved I’ve been impressed with the ladies roller hockey. I think that most male roller hockey players don’t know about ladies roller hockey, at least in England. But when I started to work with girls and I was in the last European Championship in Mira, I was very impressed with ladies roller hockey. It was amazing to see that good crowd of spectators to see a women’s roller hockey game!

MH: And in Mira there has no tradition in Roller hockey…
DP: Exactly, that’s one of reasons it was so cool. Seeing the pavilion every evening full of people, and not only when Portugal was playing! In Chile it was the same, last year, but mainly when Chile was playing… In Mira there was a great atmosphere, and to see so many people for a ladies game, it was great!
As about ladies roller hockey quality, I think it has improved, definitively.

MH: These kind of stages may help girls to develop faster?
DP: As the older players are letting the team, due to many reasons, and as our team is very young, I think yes, it is very good for us to bring them here. For the younger girls is great to be here, mainly because they can play in bigger rinks, in a full size one. In England we don’t have one single full size rink, so these trips are very important for their development.
For the management, the most important is the attitude of the girls: we are trying to put a sporting mentality in the head of the girls. This trips help us to discipline them, to develop their attitude in the trainings… and for a man, like me, it is harder to say, but it is truth: girls have a lot more emotions than the men, and it is very hard, sometimes, to put some unity in the girls teams.
Since Santiago the girls had learn a lot of things. The older players stopped playing, but the younger group of girls that we have now, all have a great attitude, they are training very well and they all want to learn a lot.

MH: We saw almost all the stages of younger kids here, in Feira. For girls, ad besides the fact of playing more times, with better teams, what may they learn? We can’t forget that sadly, many of these kids will not keep playing roller hockey…
DP: I think that, for all the kids that Carlos is bringing here, the most important thing it is to get out of England. For me, we are educating them. When I was younger, I did the same, since I was in Portugal and Spain, and I think these things may change the way you look at life: to experience something outside England.
We all know that England is a very powerful and rich country, but I think it is important that we open the kid’s mind, travelling to different countries, seeing different cultures…
In what about the sport is concerned, we can’t forget that the younger kids Carlos bring here had a totally new experience.

MH: May you please resume the last season in Premier League, so our Portuguese visitors may know more about English roller hockey, and Bury RHC?
DP: Well, for me the last season was the last as a player, and the same for other two international players that Bury had. In the start of the season, we lost our goalkeeper, who was England “number one” in Macao, in the 1998 World “B” Championship. He was sent away for work.
The younger goalkeeper went to Spain, were he played for Vilassar team for one year: with no male goalkeepers, we decided to play with two girls in goal, during the full season. For the girls, I think it has been a great experience, and we can see that the way they are performing here is a good way to show their improvement.
As classification is about, we lost the title in the last game. There was a lot of politics surrounding that game, but in the end, the most important is that the stadium was full in Herne Bay.
The game between Herne Bay and Bury is the most important in English roller hockey, is the only game in the season we get a crowd. For the players, the whole season is in this game: there is a lot of passion, and the atmosphere for the game it is great! In the last game, we lost 8-6, with a girl in the goal... We were down with five goals, but we never gave up! I think this season we were not meant to win!

MH: What about men’s next season?
DP: For the club, the last season finished with the most experienced five players letting the team. So, the next season will be for a “rebuild” in the whole team. In the club, we are national championships in the under 13, under 15 and under 17’s, and so, we have a lot of players in the English Junior’s squad. Most of those 18 and 19 years old boys need to develop, and to play senior men hockey.
The most experienced kids in the main team are very good: one of them is Carlos Amaral’s son. Many people in Portugal never saw him, but he is a very skilful player, he is very temperamental, he is very Portuguese! (Laughing)
I think this season will be the best of him, since he will be the older player in the team, and he will help the youngest very much. We will have again our keeper, who was in Spain (Vilassar) last year, and also another young player, who was in Caldes, Spain, last year.
We might also have more players, since we are the only eastern club in the Premier League, and so, there might be a lot of the best under 19 players from other clubs that may join us.

MH: Bury is going to play in the next CERS Cup…
DP: Bury has played the CERS Cup for the last two years, and we played the Champions League the year before. Last year, we played in Tenerife, and it was a very good experience for us. But it was a shame to play in a fabulous Spanish stadium, but with no crowd. There was no atmosphere in the game, and it was a disappointment, especially for the younger players, who were hopping to see a great crowd there… but they had the experience to play against players like Miquel Sanchez, who still is an amazing player!
Next year, we will have another opportunity to get our team abroad. Our team will be very young. I don’t care if we play a bigger or harder team, I would love to come to Portugal or Spain, because it is great for young players to play in bigger rinks, with good crowds. It would be a great experience for younger players!

MH: Are you proud of England’s final position in the last World’s?
DP: I’ve been plying for England since 1996. Sometimes, we couldn’t present our best team, and in the late nineties we never had the best players… but since 2000, when we held the World “B” Championships in Buckmore Park, we started to have our best players, slowly the best players started to care about national team, and the national team became more and more important. I think our results got better, since most of the best players started to realise that Carlos Amaral was not in the sport for some people: he is a Portuguese coach who is giving 150% of him for English roller hockey! And he is doing a fantastic job!
But the first time we were promoted, in Buckmore Park, it was fantastic for English Roller Hockey… but the next challenge it was to stay in the World “A”: if we stay on it, we are in a new level.
We achieve it in San Jose, and for us it was a great achievement. We also did a great job in the European Championship, but since then we lost a lot of players, and it wasn’t only me.
In Montreux, our team was very young, and they were fighting for our maximum achievement, that was staying in the higher level. If we were in a different preliminary group, our position would be higher: if we see the results, we see that it were very close. In the game against Italy, we were unlucky! I received messages from all over the England, since everybody was telling: “Oh my God, is it really happening?” (Laughing)
But then we loose the game, and it was disappointing… but at least it showed we could be in another level, but we are not quite good for an higher level…

MH: You talked about your game against Italy, but what about Switzerland?
DP: Indeed, I think Switzerland’s roller hockey has come into a different level. About the result… I think we didn’t let them win the group. We knew that Italy would not have their best players, but we also knew that Switzerland would be a threat in Montreux, since they were second in the last European Championship. I think Switzerland started the World Championship slowly, and that might help them to overcome Portugal and Argentina later in the championship. But in the final, they were completely out closed by Spain!

MH: So, you are happy with England National Team?
DP: About England… yeah, it was great for us to stay in the “A” group. I would love to be playing there, since my generation’s goal was always to get into the World “A”. But in the current national team, with younger players, we might fight for better positions, time after time. We have two great players, who are playing here, in Feira. In Switzerland, we saw that these young players have a great future. Maybe we can fight for the top-10 in the next years.

MH: I would like to know your personal view about England Roller Hockey. We know that National teams are working well, but what about your experience in clubs? (Recruiting kids, promoting the sport, etc…?)
DP: The sport in England is very strong in the East. Most of the numbers in English Federation are in the east now. Back in the nineties, North and South were the stronger, and Eastern was actually the wicker… but in the nineties has been a complete change, since Kings Lynn and Peterborough are now the bigger clubs in England. Kings Lynn have more players in lower teams than any other club in England, and their coach is very good teaching kids the basics… but the club never really developed any further, until the seniors level. We have clubs like Cambridge, with a lot of youngsters, although they don’t have a proper coach, it is more like parents helping the club. When players have 15 or 16, the ones who really want to improve want to change, and they move to Peterborough or Bury, clubs who have national level coaches. The majority of players I have come to me with that age. Although it is good for Bury, because it mean we work in a higher level, it is also hard for us. Indeed, we have not many kids, since we actually don’t play in Bury, we don’t have our proper rink. We have to travel outside Bury, and we haven’t skating sessions to get kids evolved… it is very hard to took kids from several villages, and to drive them into a far skating rink! Most of the kids we have now came to us by some friend’s mouth, and this is the way my club get younger players.

In the south, they used to do an amazing job; they used to have more clubs than now. Herne Bay United is the major club in England, and they will probably be always being the main club in England, since they have their own facilities. Their problem is that there are three clubs in Herne Bay, but the best players move to United, and then the other two clubs suffer. The main problem in the south is that there is no regional league. I think that if they can’t have more clubs, Herne Bay will be a “powerhouse” for southern roller hockey, but the rest of the region will suffer; and even the Herne Bay players will suffer, since they don’t play enough.

In the North, they have their own regional leagues, but they only have one division for each age league, because they have only five clubs. I would say that Middlesborough and Manchester are the best clubs developing kids. We also have Sheffield with a great club. Back in the eighties, Northern had a lot more clubs, but looks like the best players moved into the 2/3 main clubs, because they had their own facilities. The problem was that players let their smaller clubs, and it hurt the league strongly.

MH: What about National levels?
DP: I think that NRHA, and us indeed; we all have to keep working in the basis. I think the main clubs have to keep working their under 9, the under 11, so they can keep feed the older teams. Sadly, there are only 4 or 5 clubs in all England who are trying to develop the young kids teams…