Edwards happy with Turks and Caicos experience

Omar Edwards, along with a Jamaican contingent including Shavar Thomas, Andrew Edwards and Aaron Lawrence, made the move from Jamaica to take up the post as the head coach of the Turks and Caicos Islands national football team.

Now a year into his appointment, Edwards says it has a positive showing so far.

Edwards, who formerly coached Tivoli Gardens FC and Denham Town High, says that there has been a marked improvement in the Turks and Caicos team after their various appointments in the national set-up.

“The time has been good, so to speak. We have here for close to one year and the achievement is good so far,” Edwards reflected. “As you are aware, I have coached Aaron Lawrence here as the goalkeeper coach and coach Shavar as the assistant coach. Our technical director is Andrew Edwards and he has doing a good job in terms of organisation. Their contribution has been great so far.”

Under his coaching, the Turks and Caicos have had a rise in form in recent matches.

Nation’s history

In the Concacaf Nations League C, Edwards’ team recorded back-to-back victories for the first time in the nation’s history. They achieved this when they defeated Sint Maarten twice, winning the fixtures 5-2 and 3-2, respectively.

Edwards says this is a result of the support that the coaching staff has received since their arrival.

“We have won back-to-back games, which has never done in the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the progress has been good,” Edwards said. “The players have very appreciative of what we’ve doing and the FA has given us the green light to go ahead and scout to bring out the best possible talents.”

It hasn’t, however, been entirely smooth sailing so far for the coaches, as despite the good turn of form, the Turks and Caicos failed to advance to League B in the Nations League after slumping to a emphatic 10-0 defeat to Guadeloupe.

Edwards said a factor to this was the fact that he, as well as the other Jamaican coaches, was unable to make the trip to Guadeloupe after denied entry to the island. It was explained that it was a passport issue that hampered their travel plans.

“The coaching staff did not get the chance to go to Guadeloupe and as a result, I believe that it took a toll on the team. That definitely was a significant impact but I believe everybody learnt from it.”