CONCACAF Women’s U17 Caribbean Qqualifiers… Overseas players and GK Coach to be added Guyana’s squad

Jul 28, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....added-guyanas-squad/

Guyana will begin their campaign in the CONCACAF Caribbean Women’s U17 Qualifiers on Wednesday, 9th of August at the National Track and Field Facility, Leonora against the Barbados national team.
This will be followed by a Barbados – Cuba clash on Friday, 11th August and a Guyana – Cuba match on Sunday, 13th August to wrap up Group D matches.
In a release from the Guyana Football Federation yesterday, it noted that the local team will be boosted with the appointment of an international Goalkeeping Coach, Hope Clarke, and three international players, the latter scouted by the newly-appointed International Women’s Coordinator, Paul Beresford.
Clarke is the Head Coach of Women’s Football at Georgia College and holds a United States Soccer Federation “B” License and a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Goalkeeping Diploma.
According to the Georgia College’s “Bobcats” website, Clarke is one of the most successful coaches in the history of soccer at Georgia College. This is even as the National U17 Women’s team wrapped up their two-week camp on Saturday last and prepares to head into their final camp from the 1st – 8th August under the leadership of Head Coach Akilah Castello.
Clarke and the new players will join the squad at the commencement of the final camp. While in Guyana, Hope will also conduct coach’s education sessions with the two female national coaches, Castello and Tricia Munroe.
Technical Director, Ian Greenwood, in summing up the last camp had said that while more technical work has to be done, Guyana being host of the tournament will be a boost for women’s football in the country.
”In terms of our group itself, we know it’s very, very strong. We’ve got Cuba who is obviously a powerhouse in football.
Barbados has got a very good women’s programme and it has been going for a lot of years.
”We’re very much in the building stage; Coach Akilah and Coach Tricia are very much aware of what we’re trying to achieve, which is to improve the technical skill and game understanding among the players,” Greenwood added.
Greenwood, in commenting on the development objective of the tournament said: “We want to use this tournament to expose the female team to international competition and build them over the next few years, take them on tours to places such as Suriname, Trinidad and Barbados. Exposure is the most important thing that we need.
There is no other way you can get around that apart from playing games and participate in tournaments, which we are looking to do. I’d really like to stress that the tournament is free, we wish the public show up at the games, look at the girls and show all the support to them.”
Guyana is among five nations hosting the group stages of the tournament including St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia.
The competition will be hosted in two phases: the Qualifying Group Phase and the Qualifying Final Phase.
According to the regulations, the qualifying phase of the Caribbean competition shall be played separately within the Caribbean, thus providing the agreed representation for the 2018 CONCACAF 2018 Women’s Under-17 Championship.
Three teams from the Caribbean zone qualify automatically to the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, the two finalists and third place winner in the qualifying final stage.”