Dear Editor: Girls’ football development should start in primary schools—not in High Performance programme

“[…] If we were really serious, the powers that be would have engaged the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sport about having PE teachers educated on introducing and coaching girls at the primary school level.

“[…] We seem not to have the patience or appetite to do things correctly, so instead we do things to make it seem as if we are doing something…”

The following Letter to the Editor on Trinidad and Tobago’s current Girls High Performance setup, in the wake of the team’s showing at the CFU Girls U14 Challenge Series, was submitted to Wired868 by Wayne ‘Barney’ Sheppard, who is head coach at QPCC FC and Arima North Secondary:

Trinidad and Tobago National U-14 player Zara Chase (left) tries to keep the ball from Jamaica opponent Nycolette Pendergrast during 2025 CFU U14 Challenge Series action at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain.
(via TTFA Media.)

If we were really interested in developing local women footballers, it does not take a rocket scientist to see we are starting at an incorrect point along the development curve.


If we were really serious, the powers that be would have engaged the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sport about having PE teachers educated on introducing and coaching girls at the primary school level.

The decision of what is to be coached, how it is to be coached and when it is to be coached would be outlined in a TTFA/ Fifa document to guide coaches.

Trinidad and Tobago Girls High Performance U-14 team get ready for action at the Larry Gomes Stadium during the 2025 CFU U14 Challenge Series.
Photo: TTFA Media.

Time will be spent initially bringing these PE teachers up to coaching levels necessary to introduce this method, where they make basic football skills/ training a part of PE.

(The same should be done for netball as well but I will stick with football as that is what we are discussing).

By doing so, we immediately have an increase in two important commodities:

  1. players;
  2. coaches who can competently work with female players.
Trinidad and Tobago Girls National U-14 players look crestfallen during their CFU U14 Challenge Series contest with Bermuda at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on 17 August 2025.
Bermuda won 2-0.
Photo: TTFA Media.

These students would be playing from five or six years old, all through their primary school years.

This, in turn, will see a growth in the number of girls taking up the sport outside of school. The knock-on effect of this would be parents searching for football clubs to send their daughters.

So instead of seeing the novelty of one talented girl training and playing with a boys under-8 team in a local club tournament, we will be seeing under-8 girls teams from various clubs playing against each other.

Photo: Trendsetter Hawks ‘A’ attacker Mariah Williams (centre) tries to outwit Football Factory opponent Benjamin Rose (far left) during RBYL U-11 action at the Queen’s Park Savannah on 25 May 2019.
The RBYL did not have a separate girls competition at the time.
Williams is now a national youth player.
Photo: Allan V Crane/ CA-Images/ Wired868.

These teams will need coaches, so the very same PE teachers (if they are really devoted to coaching) will find themselves coaching at some of these clubs.

So at age 12 or 13, when you decide you want to have a high performance setup, you would have had:

  1. A pool of girls who have been playing the sport for six to seven years, from which you can select the most talented;
  2. A pool of PE teachers-cum-coaches who have been following the development guidelines for girls for the last six to seven years, from which you can pick the most dedicated and open minded.
Fifa talent development coach and Trinidad and Tobago Girls National U-14 head coach Kevin McGreskin.
Photo: TTFA Media.

At this point, you can now introduce a Fifa talent expert!!!! He has both players and staff to work with.

I have met and spoken to Mr Kevin McGreskin. I also attended a coaching symposium the other day where, when other development coaches heard I was from Trinidad, they immediately asked for Mr McGreskin and spoke highly of him.

I got that same impression from my interactions with him and with other local coaches who worked with him.

Trinidad and Tobago Girls National U-14 coach and Fifa talent development officer Kevin McGreskin (right) consoles player Zara Chase during the 2025 CFU Girls U14 Challenge Series.
Photo: TTFA Media.

I point this out to state I don’t believe Mr McGreskin is the issue, as some might be tempted to believe. But he, in my very humble opinion, has been placed in a situation where a hiding to nothing is the reality.

We seem not to have the patience or appetite to do things correctly, so instead we do things to make it seem as if we are doing something.

Those with eyes and better sense can discern one from the other.

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One comment

  1. Trevor Bridglalsingh

    Well said Wayne , I agree, but you left out the most important thing, playing fields have been abandoned.
    Other support facilities for all sports are either non existent or in disrepair .
    Nothing can happen without infrastructure bring properly set up and maintained .
    Police in school is good but coaches in schools is being proactive .

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