Four young ladies will head to the Turks and Caicos Islands to join an overseas group of players to represent Guyana at an invitational Under-20 four-nation tournament from tomorrow.
Three of the selected players, Leonie Robinson, Tesira Stanislaus and Roxanne Stephens, are from the Rupununi while the other Odessa Romeo, hails from Georgetown.
The girls will depart Guyana today along with Vanica Dickenson, Head of Women’s Football in Guyana.
They will be in action on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday before returning home next Monday.
Mark Rodrigues, Women’s Development Officer of the GFF, will be in charge of the team which will comprise girls attending and playing soccer at various universities, colleges and clubs in the United States of America and Canada.
Rodrigues holds many coaching certificates from North America, including national licenses of both countries.
He also has extensive experience as a women’s coach with various women’s’ teams in North America, both at the collegiate and club levels.
The average age of the four players is said to be 17 years.
GFF president Colin Klass told the media that the selections were based on the women’s performances in previous tournaments.
He also highlighted the fact that age also played a part in the process since scholarships are also likely at the tournament.
“Women have a better chance of obtaining scholarships than the men, so we chose these players not because they were the best, but also their age, skill and the opportunity for them to go forward in the sport,” Klass said.
He also observed that women’s football is played mostly in the Rupununi which was the reason most of the girls were from that region.
“It was not an easy task for us to select these players because of the talent in the area but it is also very difficult for us to reach those areas. Most of the time people focus on Georgetown alone but Georgetown is not Guyana,” said Klass.
The GFF, Klass added, will be embarking on a very ambitious programme with Colin Baker of the Guyana Sports Development Found-ation for the overseas tournament which he hopes will assist to fast track the women’s programme for regional tournaments.