S2H Team

The United States has turned to Harendra Singh to boost its men’s field hockey fortunes, the country’s governing body announced on Thursday. The former coach of the India men’s and women’s teams will take charge of the American men who are ranked No. 24 in the world.

“We are thrilled to have ‘Harry’ join USA Field Hockey and lead our Men’s program,” stated Simon Hoskins, USA Field Hockey’s Executive Director on its website. “The US Men’s National Team showed great progress prior to the COVID-19 shutdown and now with a coach of the caliber and experience of Harry at the helm we are excited for the future of the USMNT.”

Former India’s women and Men’s team chief coach Harendra will now handle National team of the States

Harendra , 52, reacted to the appointment with enthusiasm and said in a message on the US Field Hockey website,

“Thank you for this exciting opportunity to coach the US Men’s National Team. My enthusiasm knows no bounds as I am excited to begin this journey with my experience in providing tools to players to find their strengths and weaknesses. Developing personalized training programs will surely help the team who have the power to change the tables in world hockey with their sheer grit determination and hard work. I am truly looking forward to being a part of a professional setup. I am excited to become a contributor to the growth of the USMNT by providing ‘Best of Breed’ to our players. I’m looking forward to a dynamic relationship as we get ready to challenge the best of the best teams in the years to come.”

Harendra emerges from a more than two-year hiatus to coach a national squad. The former India defender was shown the door by Hockey India following the failure of the team to win a medal at the 2018 Bhubaneswar World Cup where they reached the quarterfinals, losing to the Netherlands 1-2 and eventually finishing fifth – a creditable performance nothwithstanding.

Despite the failure to finish on the podium, Harendra did a remarkable job with the team in a year’s time having them to the final of the 2018 Champions Trophy in Breda, The Netherlands, where they lost to Australia in a shootout.

In his brief spell with the women’s hockey team, Harendra ensured Asia Cup success

With foreign coaches regularly given the top job, Harendra has been the lone Indian coach in the mix and was given charge in the year before the World Cup.

What did his prospects in was a shock defeat in a prolonged shootout to Malaysia in the 2018 Asian Games semifinals in Jakarta-Pelembang where the team eventually won the bronze medal beating Pakistan.

Harendra is a progressive coach and open to modern tactics, ideas and technology. But equally significant was the raw passion with which he did everything hockey. He also struck a chord with the players, especially the young ones and that was well and truly on display when India won the 2016 Junior World Cup in Lucknow. Many of those young players – notably Harmanpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh – have been regulars in the senior team.

The USA team that was in Bhubaneswar for the Olympic Qualifier 2019

Harendra’s broad task is to lift the US team’s ranking from No. 24 to a zone which would pave way for the next World Cup qualifying success which would mean a strong performance at the Pan American Championships.

In doing so, he would hope to raise the profile of the men’s game in the USA where the women have a stronger tradition and stature. The American women are currently ranked No. 15 in the world and have won two continental titles.

The Americans came close to sealing a berth in the Olympic qualifiers in Bhubaneswar in 2019, losing by a late goal to South Africa in the FIH Finals semifinal.

Harendra donned the India colours from 1985 to 1991, featuring in 23 matches. He was part of the 1990 Beijing Asian Games silver medal winning team. Harendra, however, hung up his stick shortly later to focus on coaching.

Domestically, he represented Air India with aplomb and was General Manager (Commercial), a top rank in the organization – no other hockey player except Zafar Iqbal (retired) could scale up to this level — till his voluntary retirement last year. Harendra grabbed headlines last year as a front-line warrior in the battle against Covid-19 which is plaguing the world. Wearing an anti-contamination suit, he helped in operations to disembark Indians from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the virus, in the first flight from the city after the pandemic gripped the world.

Harendra did well as head coach of the India women’s team as well in 2017-18 guiding them to the 2017 Women’s Hockey Asia Cup title. An FIH Level 4 High Performance certificate holder, Harendra’s passion for coaching led him to guide budding coaches at the Sports Authority of India and other centres the length and breadth of the country. His efforts brought him the Dronacharya Award in 2012.