Launch of women’s football team

 Barbuda has its first women’s football team. The players include:

Shewn David and Neil Gore, coaches for the Barbuda Council, are training the women in the afternoon at the football pitch at Holy Trinity School. Practices start at 4 pm Mondays to Thursdays with a game on Friday afternoons. The coaches are looking for sponsorship for kit.

The launching of the team was marked by a visit from the schools’ female champions from Jennings. The players were accompanied by three national officials: Chesley Brown, their coach, who is also coach of the national women’s team; Dr Victor Stanculescu, the Technical Director of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association; and Ivor Davis of the National Referees Association, who directs the national referee training programme. Dr Stanculescu said that they intended to set up the same football programmes in Barbuda as exist in Antigua. The officials were looking to develop Barbudan players for possible future selection in the national team.

Dr Stanculescu emphasised that football scholarships are available at American universities for women. Certainly an incentive for women here. I’m sure we have some who, with training, could “bend it like Beckham”.