The Bermuda Ladies Under-17 hockey team will have their last warm-up match on local soil tomorrow at the National Sports Centre (NSC) before they head off on Tuesday to compete in the first ever Pan-American Youth Championships to be held at the Carrasco Polo Club in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The tournament is a qualifier for the World Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore later this year.

The young Bermuda team have been training together for a year and face the daunting task of taking on the region's best teams in Uruguay.

A squad of 19 players have been chosen to make the trip, with the most experienced players being Ryanne Bardgett and Katie Masters, who represented the Bermuda Under-21 team in Mexico at the Pan-American Under-21 tournament in October 2008 and the senior national team at the Pan-American Cup held here in Bermuda in February 2009.

They will be joined by two other U-21 internationals from Mexico, Jennifer Chisnall and Emily Chadderton.

For the remainder of players this will be there first experience of international competition and, for some, the first time playing outside Bermuda with all of the girls playing for league clubs in Bermuda.

The team have an average age of just 15 years and ten months and will be the youngest team at the tournament by some way and although the team are very realistic about the match scores they can be expected to work very hard and hopefully put together some pleasing hockey which this squad can build on for the future.

Bermuda's first match is on March 13 against USA, which will undoubtedly prove to be a baptism of fire.

The next day the team face the host country Uruguay and then the powerful Chileans on March 16.

After the pool matches Bermuda will face two qualification matches on Thursday, March 18 and Saturday, March 20, probably against Mexico and Paraguay to finish off the tournament before starting the 28 hour return to Bermuda on Sunday, March 21.

The team will be lead on the pitch by captain and right forward Raven Pearman and vice-captain, goalkeeper Latonia Fray, both of whom will be playing their first tournament for Bermuda.

The squad have put a tremendous amount of time into their fundraising for this trip and the management team of Juliette Oatley and Stephanie Adderley have worked tirelessly to fund this $60,000 tournament.

This amount was funded by a number of fundraisers and through the gracious sponsorships of several local companies including but not limited to BELCO, Max Bermuda, Midsea Consulting Limited, Bermuda Container Line Ltd., RenaissanceRe, Arch Capital, and Butterfield & Vallis.

Squad: (Goalkeepers) Latonia Fray, Keisha Harvey; (Defenders) Jokiah Richardson, Heather Sinclair, Megan Lindsay-Bayley, Rhea Gibbons, Rachel Soares, Zoe Friesen, Emily Chadderton; (Utility Players) Ryanne Bardgett, Safiya Nurse; (Midfielders) Christine Decker, Lorina-Le Harvey, Jennifer Chisnall, Iman Smith; (Forwards) Raven Pearman, Alex Francis, Lorendae Symonds, Katie Masters.