Women's Under-17 coach tackles youth football's catch-22

As coach Ayana Russell and the TT Under-17 women's football team gear up for the first round of Concacaf Under-17 Women's qualifying from January 24- February 1, the juxtaposition of furthering youth development and producing a strong, competitive team has reared its head again as the country tries to qualify for a World Cup.

Placed alongside Barbados, El Salvador, Guadeloupe and hosts Curacao in Group F for round one of the tournament, TT must finish first in the group to advance to Concacaf's final round, or finish as one of the two-best second-placed teams across the six groups. Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the US received a bye to the final round.

And while Russell believes she has assembled a team which has the right balance and quality to progress to the final round, she opined that more must be done from a holistic standpoint to ensure players are properly developed and not just rushed into competition mode when a Concacaf qualifying series begins.

"When we get the players, we as a staff have to go back to grassroots development work. Whereas, we're supposed to be going into tournament preparation. And that's just because, from a technical and tactical standpoint, and many other different areas, they just don't come with the necessary skills, etcetera," Russell told Newsday, during an interview on January 14.

In the build-up to these Under-17 qualifiers, though, Russell noted a positive change which she would like to see trickle down to other teams as well.

"The High Performance programme would have been going on months prior," she said. "So when I got (the players), it was just a continuation of getting them to buy into developing and not just trying to make a team. In terms of that, that's one of the things I saw a change with in terms of the team selected. I saw a change in them where they now understand why certain things are required. It's unfortunate because it's not something that's across the board in terms of development. We're focused on competition when it shouldn't be like that."

For Russell and her staff, the work done in the High Performance programme continued in last month's Jewels of the Caribbean tournament. The results weren't favourable for TT's Under-17s, though, as they lost 4-0 to eventual champions Indy Premier in their opener on December 15, before losing 2-1 to Jamaica and then going down 1-0 to a Secondary Schools Football League XI in their other matches.

Despite those results, Russell saw the Jewels exercise as a fruitful one, and said the necessary readjustments have been made while the squad has been reinforced with foreign-based talent as well.

"The Jewels tournament was to kinda assess the players and give them an opportunity to play and get a field of the international game and to see where they're at. It was good to measure the locals and foreigners to see where we're at in comparison to them and to try to come up with a plan for getting the team at least closer in terms of the standards, because there was a clear disparity there," she said.

"For me, I have to understand my role as a development coach, and I think that's not clear in our country. Development coaches think they're the competition coaches. No, it shouldn't be like that. If we don't develop the players, then when we progress, they won't have the foundation.

"The local players got to see the (level) in the Jewels tournament, and that kinda got them a little bit more focused and understanding why I want them to develop. At present, they're not developing, they're just playing competition."

As she tries to marry development with the need to get results in a competitive environment, Russell assured her charges are ready, though tight-lipped on a team which should be announced on January 17.

TT play their first game of the qualifiers against Curacao on January 24, before tackling Guadeloupe (January 26), Barbados (January 28) and El Salvador (February 1). All games will be played at the FFK Stadium in Willemstad, Curacao.

"The first game is against Curacao, which will be a very competitive game. They just qualified for a senior World Cup. They have all that energy and hype going for them, so I think it's also exciting for our girls to go into that environment. I'm very confident (that) the team selected can progress. It's just a matter of sticking to the objectives and focusing on each game and how we wanna play."