Meet Caribbean Hockey

2024 Dream Nations Cup Results: 

Women’s Team: Finished 2nd
Men’s Team: Did Not Participate

Hockey Caribbean’s Short History Already a Rich One

In 2020, during the isolating times of the COVID-19 pandemic, hockey player Jazmine Miley built the foundation of what is now known as the Hockey Players of Color Movement (HPOC). The idea was born out of a feeling of isolation and a need for community among hockey players of color from across the world, regardless of skill level. Their mission includes the belief that “Hockey is a beautiful sport, and it is crucial that all interested individuals have the opportunity to participate.” The HPOC Movement now has 437 registered members for their tournament team programs, and they continue to be a driving force for social justice in hockey. 

While Miley was competing for Puerto Rico at the 2021-22 Latam Cup, she realized that, like her, many of the players registered with HPOC were of Caribbean descent. While there were talented players with links to places like Jamaica, Barbados, Hispaniola and more, opportunities to compete for those locations are sparse. That realization led to Hockey Caribbean’s creation as an HPOC subsidiary. The Hockey Caribbean Community team allows players from across the Caribbean to create a community while representing their nations in high-level tournaments.

While the Hockey Caribbean Community team took the ice for the first time in 2023, the organization has already grown to include registered members totaling over 30 women, 25 men and 40 children under 12. The team has wasted no time turning into a supremely competitive program with high placements in several tournaments thus far. The women’s team won their division in the same tournament twice in a row and finished second in the inaugural Dream Nations Cup.

Despite being a young program, the Caribbean team is already a force to be reckoned with. They hope to carry that success into 2025. 

Hockey Caribbean Gearing up for Gold in 2025

When speaking with Jazmine Miley, it became clear just how competitive she and the rest of the team are. When asked what would make 2025 a successful year for their program, her response was simple. 

“Success would be all of us winning. Our men’s team were finalists for the first time in their division [At the Latam Cup]. The girls and I are very set on working hard to be champs this year. For Amerigol, getting our third championship.” 

With the addition of a men’s team, the Caribbean hockey team will have twice the chance to take home hardware in the Dream Nations Cup this year. The Caribbean men’s team may be a newcomer to the Dream Nations Cup, but they’ve already seen success in the Latam Cup. Miley mentioned that the men’s team placed second in the 2024 Amerigol Latam Cup Division III tournament.

The Women’s team placed second in their Dream Nations Cup debut after an epic tournament that featured several tightly contested matchups with the Netherlands team. You can read more about that here. Miley spoke about that loss and how it’s stuck with the team. 

“It still stings. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose, and it was a great experience. It was hard in my position because I couldn’t play during that time…Hopefully, it will be different this year.”

With a competitive fire and talent to match, the Caribbean squad should be a force in this Dream Nation Cup. Miley spoke about the women’s team’s skills and how she hopes it can be an inspiration for showing young girls in the program that there are options to play at the next level. 

“This past year, I focused heavily on getting girls on the team who were ex-professional players, NCAA D1 or D3 players; we have a girl currently in prep school who will be going D1, so the talent is there. At the same time, there’s always an opportunity for our younger players to come up and play with us. They can learn and get to know our team and see that college hockey is an option, professional hockey is an option whether that’s the PWHL or overseas.”

Building Community and a Future

While competitive spirit is clearly at the heart of Caribbean hockey, our conversation with Jazmine Miley also spotlighted the team’s commitment to building a community and leaving the game in a better place than when they came into it. 

“I would say community is our biggest thing as an organization. Representing your country is important, and I know many of our players who go back to the countries they have roots in and do great things for their communities. I know we’ve worked with my uncle in Puerto Rico to send down sticks for kids to play ball hockey and equipment that kids need.”

While the Caribbean team is a close-knit organization, Miley also says events like the Dream Nations Cup are an excellent opportunity to build relationships with other teams and countries in similar situations to their own.

“We have created great relationships with Team Egypt. We’re hoping to have an informal talk with their girls and are trying to get them recruited for college hockey. One of the members from Team Central America has a son who plays for HPOC, and he helps coach our team. So we’ve built a lot of different relationships. Whether it’s helping each other, like having their kids play for us if they don’t have a kids program, it’s just important to give everyone a platform. 

That goal of giving everyone a platform is central to Jazmine Miley and Hockey Caribbean’s mission. The team is excellent and a lot of fun to watch, but the main concern is building opportunities for everyone to be included in the future of hockey. 

“Everything that we’ve done between HPOC and Caribbean is all for the kids, and the adults too. I wanted to create something that a lot of us never had. We’ve done that with this community. It isn’t about me; now it’s time to hand this off to people who deserve that opportunity to be put out there.”

You can follow Caribbean Hockey’s journey at the social media links below. Catch them at the 2025 Dream Nations Cup in New York City from May 27 to June 1.