Bermuda women's hockey coach Dafydd Hermann-Smith believes his team has the right blend of youth and experience as they prepare for the upcoming CAC Games.

With a trio of veterans in Liz Stewart, Marcia Ford and JoAnne Bielby along with captain Lakae Dill, vice-skipper Alex Lewis and Clemmie Stubbs, Hermann-Smith has a number of seasoned players to choose from.

And with college students Keishae Robinson, Francesca Cacace and Jasmine Patterson along with Jennifer Chisnall, Ryanne Bardgette, Raven Pearman, Iman Smith, Alex Francis and Latonia Fray who all competed in this year's Pan Am Youth Championships in Uruguay, he has some hungry young ones too.

Helen Marshall was too old to compete in that competition but will feature at the CAC Games in Puerto Rico.

As long as the players learn from the mistakes they made in South America, Hermann-Smith is confident they can give a good account of themselves.

"The CAC Games is traditionally the highest level of competition Bermuda plays at the senior level, therefore it provides a showcase for our best players every four years," he said.

"I know several of the younger players had their eyes opened in Uruguay and are determined to become much better and they have worked hard to raise their game to a higher level.

"They will never forget the experience of watching Argentina train and play."

Team Bermuda have been training twice a week for the past seven months although some of the younger players had to miss sessions because of school exams.

That the average age of the team is just 22 should bode well for the future of the sport on the Island.

Although Hermann-Smith is mindful not to raise expectations he does believe they could possibly steal a win against Guyana in their opening match.

Their remaining games are against Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

"As usual I am very realistic," said Hermann-Smith.

"I don't think we will ever be able to say we're as well prepared as we can be. One of the major problems with this particular team, because of its make up, has been the fact that so many of them have been involved in important examinations right up until the end of June and this has impacted upon our preparations

"Our first pool game is against Guyana who may not be technically better than us, although they have been to both Trinidad and Barbados to prepare for this tournament, but they may well be physically more dominant.

"We'll be looking to play an attacking formation in and if we can convert our chances we may get a favourable result.

"Our second match is against a very strong Trinidad and Tobago team who are preparing for the Commonwealth Games. They have prepared by playing a five Test match series in Chile and we will do well to keep the score down.

"Next up is Barbados and I'm hoping to do better than our last result against them which was –0-6. In the classification matches we will meet either Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic and against those opponents we will also be looking for a favourable result."

Team Bermuda: JoAnn Bielby, Francesxa Cacase, Jennifer Chisnall, LaKae Dill, Marcia Ford, Constance Francis, Latonia Fray, Helen Marshall, Jasmine Patterson, Raven Pearman, Keisae Robinson, Iman Smith, Elizabeth Stewart, Catherine Stubbs, Alexandra Wheatley