Two members of the University of Louisville field hockey community, assistant coach Will Holt and alumna Carter Ayars, have been chosen to represent the United States at the Hockey 5s Pan American Cups. The event will be held in Kingston, Jamaica, between June 4 and 11. Holt will serve as an assistant coach for the men’s team, while Ayars will be on the field for the women’s team. This is the first year of the Hockey5s Pan American Cups, an international competition for men and women organized by the Pan American Hockey Federation. The top three men’s and women’s teams selected will qualify for the first-ever FIH Hockey5s World Cup in January 2024, to be held in Muscat, Oman. The competition is designed to be fast-paced, with a small-sided outdoor game being played.
Holt, who had been a member of the USA Field Hockey Men’s National Team since 2007 before joining Louisville as an assistant coach, recently completed his first season with the Cardinals. He played a vital role in guiding the team to 12 wins and helped it earn an at-large bid to the 2022 NCAA Tournament while reaching as high as the No. 4 spot in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association rankings. On the other hand, Ayars, who hails from Wilmington, Delaware, was a defender on the Louisville field hockey team from 2016 to 2019. She received NFHCA third team honors in 2019 and was named an NFHCA All-West Region selection twice. She also previously represented the USWNT at the Development, U-21, and U-19 levels.
Hockey 5s is a relatively new format of field hockey sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation in 2014. It is now envisioned as a separate stream of the sport by FIH, with the Indoor World Cup and the Outdoor World Cup being the other two traditional streams. The smaller, five-a-side game is expected to make hockey more accessible to players and fans alike. The game requires less space and uses fewer resources to host, making it a more affordable and sustainable version of the sport. Moreover, Hockey 5s is designed to encourage players to develop a range of skills, including individual technique, speed, teamwork, and agility, in addition to improving their adaptability and decision-making abilities.
