Caracas for the CAC Games.

Their squad of 16 is based around the under-21 side that went to Chile in 1997, with two players in their twenties and a handful of thirty-somethings.

Only two, Brenda Smith and Michelle Ming, have seen CAC competition before.

There is a gap of 23 years between the oldest player, Smith, at 38, and the youngest, Krisanthi Bartley, at just 15.

Asked how they might be expected to fare, manager Nicola Wilkinson is forthright. "To be brutally honest, I don't know,'' she says. "We're taking a very young side.

"Because of the hiatus in the senior programme in the last four years we haven't really had anything to build on. We're hoping our older players can teach our youngsters and bring them on. They will be able to impart their knowledge and act as a calming influence.'' Wilkinson, president of the BLHA and who has been involved in running hockey on the Island for five years, is quietly confident that the team can improve on Bermuda's last outing at the competition in Puerto Rico in 1993.

Then, they lost all five games, failed to score a goal and conceded 20. The low point was a 9-0 trouncing by Cuba.

"We are not going to get a medal,'' she says succinctly. "But on a good day we would hope to come away with a win or a couple of draws.'' With the Commonwealth Games on the horizon, it is also difficult to gauge the level of the competition.

Bermuda take on Venezuela and Mexico in their first two games next Wednesday and Thursday -- teams they finished ahead of in Chile -- and Wilkinson expects decent results against both.

But their remaining matches against Jamaica, Barbados and Cuba are harder to call.

"Cuba is a place with such political troubles, it depends on what sort of side they send. One coach reckons they could trounce us, while another thinks they're there for the taking.

"The top three qualify for the Pan Am Games, but I think Jamaica may already have qualified.

"It remains to be seen whether they send a young side or use it as a training session for the Commonwealth.'' Training for the Bermuda squad has not been ideal. The side have not played together as a unit because five of the squad -- Bonnie Liebowitch, Suella Matthews, Caroline Black, Kirsten Butterworth and Samantha Adams -- have only recently returned to the Island from school abroad.

And while they have had the use of Saltus gym for the past 18 months, Wilkinson admits its restricted space makes things difficult.

The team will rely on a whistle-stop three-day tournament in Toronto over the weekend to get confidence up for Venezuela.

"To be honest we're really looking ahead to the next CAC Games and hope to build on this one,'' says Wilkinson.

"You have to set realistic aims. We are doing this for the female youth of Bermuda to get the sport back on track.'' HOCKEY HOC