Rally around the Girlz
MOMENTS AFTER she was blanketed by a group of athletes from her alma mater, St Jago High, which took a break from a track meet at G.C. Foster College to greet the Reggae Girlz yesterday, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw flashed back to her playing days at the Spanish Townbased school.
The 21-year-old, who, along with her teammates, paused at the sports college from a motorcade to celebrate their historic qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next year, believes it was the innocent playing days at St Jago that developed a competitive spirit inside her that has now led her and Jamaica to the pinnacle of the women’s game.
“When I was playing at St Jago, I never had any great aspirations. It was just fun and excitement, but it made me very competitive, and it is that competitiveness that I am thriving on now,” the University of Tennessee senior shared. “It enabled me to play for Jamaica, and that is when I started to take it seriously.”
She continued: “When I got to the national team, I realised that I could get something from this if I just worked hard. And because I worked hard, I am here now.”
BE INSPIRED
And now that Shaw and the rest of the Reggae Girlz are on the brink of playing on women’s football greatest stage, she hopes that the boys and girls who left their homes to wave at the motorcade will be inspired by the moment.
“They are celebrating with a team that qualified for the World Cup, and I am pretty sure that they can say, I want to be like those girls. I want to practise to be like them so it goes a long way,” Shaw said.
Minister of Sport, Olivia Grange told The Sunday Gleaner that one of the purposes of
the motorcade was to galvanise support for the Girlz.
“We want to generate support for the Girlz. I think it is important for Jamaica to rally around the Girlz and show them love and embrace them because they are going to need our support to prepare for France and to perform well when they get there,” she said. “Some of these girls were not born here, and it is also a chance to introduce them to Jamaica.”
Head coach Hue Menzies, also praised the idea of the celebration as he thinks it could help to garner sponsorship for the team who he has to prepare to take on Brazil, Italy, and Australia in the group stage of the tournament.
“We want to really get Jamaica behind us because we are going to need it. Corporate Jamaica is important now because we have to prepare for the World Cup. We are in the process of finalising the schedule of games leading up to the tournament, and we want to play some of those games in Jamaica, so we are going to need sponsorship for those games to happen,” Menzies said.
The four-day celebration continues today with a thanksgiving concert, which will be the open to the public, at Emancipation Park in New Kingston.
DONOVAN WHITE, president of Red Stripe Premier League club Waterhouse FC has, perhaps, one of the broadest smiles in local football at the moment. After watching his team do what was considered improbable at the end of the first round of last season, by advancing to the final only to lose on penalties, they are again making a big noise.
Currently sitting in second position, two points behind Portmore United, the team that defeated them last season, they are again defying the odds. In the off-season, they lost three key components in charismatic coach Donovan Duckie to the cash-rich Mount Pleasant. Their most dangerous attackers, Cardel Benbow and Kemar Beckford, followed suit, but home-grown coach Marcel Gayle has picked up where Duckie left off and Waterhouse are the team to beat.
Today, Portmore United will be aiming to do just that when they visit Drewsland for the 7 p.m. clash.
“Of course, it is a big game. We are pretty close in points, and we want to maintain the distance between us and whoever is close to us,” Portmore United coach Shavar Thomas said of the encounter.
“We are looking to add points and move on. We are looking to maintain our form and continue moving ahead without focusing on anyone but ourselves,” added Thomas, who led his team to a 2-2 draw in the first round.
While Waterhouse have been boiling hot, particularly since the start of the second round, where they have a perfect record in the five games, Portmore United have not had the smoothest ride, drawing twice and winning the other two games in their last five. Included in those results was a come-from-behind win over Reno, who are in 10th position, and a hard-fought win over 12thplaced Dunbeholden.
“Those games have taught us some things that we value. The Dunbeholden game is a derby game in itself, so we expected the neighbouring team to come at us, which they did because pride is at stake, and it does not matter where you are in the table. The fact that we were able to repel them and to come back from two goals down to defeat Reno shows that we have character and selfvalue, and that tells me a lot going forward,” Thomas explained.
This game, one can assume, is similarly big, if not bigger, for Waterhouse, but their talking is only done on the field, it seems, as calls to the various representatives of the club go unanswered. Despite that, the likes of Tramaine Stewart, Keithy Simpson, Andrae McFarlane, and Ricardo Thomas will show up.
Portmore United will, perhaps, start without captain Ricardo Morris, who is nursing an injury but should have Jovan East, Rondee Smith, and Damano Solomon leading their charge.
3 p.m: Mount Pleasant vs Tivoli Gardens – Drax Hall Sports Complex
3 p.m: UWI FC vs Humble Lion – UWI Mona Bowl
5 p.m: Cavalier vs Dunbeholden – Stadium East
7 p.m: Waterhouse vs Portmore United – Waterhouse Stadium
7 p.m: Arnett Gardens vs FC Reno – Anthony Spaulding Complex Match
IIIII8:35 p.m: Montego Bay United vs Harbour View – Montego Bay Sports Complex
IPOINT STANDINGS
Portmore 16 9 5 2 26 15 11 32 Waterhouse 16 8 6 2 27 13 14 30 Cavalier 16 7 6 3 18 10 8 27 Arnett 16 7 5 4 21 15 6 26 Mt. Pleasant 16 7 5 4 12 8 4 26 Tivoli 16 6 3 7 16 16 0 21 H. Lion 16 4 8 4 17 17 0 20 UWI FC 16 6 2 8 15 16 -1 20 MoBay 16 3 7 6 12 21 -9 16 Reno 16 3 5 8 9 18 -9 14 H.View 16 2 7 7 14 30 -16 13 Dunbeholden 16 3 3 10 16 22 -6 12