Sarjeant, Mascall involved at Concacaf Coaching course

TWO TT women’s football coaches and ex-national players, Dernelle Mascall and Desiree Sarjeant participated in a Concacaf D License course in Antigua/Barbuda from May 6-9.

The training, which focused on providing Member Associations with a D License, is part of the efforts of the Confederation to increase access for women to the game.

Concacaf’s objectives also include changing perception and growing participation in the women’s game by collaborating with Member Associations, players and coaches across the region.

Sarjeant spoke about the benefits she derived from the three-day course.

“The course was very beneficial to me in many ways but mainly because I was able to gain a lot of knowledge on new methods of coaching and practice planning,” Sarjeant said.

“It provided an opportunity for both regional and local female coaches to be mentored by a group of expert female mentors/coaches and so the knowledge gained can now only serve us in good stead as we take a new approach to coaching. We can now better prepare ourselves and our players to compete against the best players and teams in the world,” she added.

The 25 participating coaches from 12 of 41 Member Associations included one former player and one current female coach. Participants included representatives of English-speaking Member Associations from the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts/Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands and hosts Antigua/Barbuda.

The coaching programme covered a wide range of topics in addition to the Concacaf D License curriculum, focused on safeguarding, empowerment, accountability, as well as specific characteristics for women coaching.

This revamped course featured five Concacaf coaching instructors who are active and experienced within the Member Associations, all holding advanced coaching licenses such as the USSF National A License and the UEFA Pro License.

These five Concacaf coaches were former Canadian coaches Carmelina Moscato and Candace Chapman, University of New Mexico coach Heather Dyche, University of Washington coach Lesle Gallimore and former Mexican International and University of Manitoba coach Vanessa Martinez-Lagunas.

The plan by Concacaf is to create a comprehensive mentorship programme with the collaboration of UEFA and grow the women’s game within the Concacaf region by forming a “pyramid-effect” of mentors and mentees between the five Concacaf coaching instructors and the 25 participants to help grow participation, while also inspiring the future generations of female coaches.