Former Reggae Girlz Vincent, James in charge

For the first time in Jamaica’s football history, a team will be directed by women only as former Reggae Girls Tashana Vincent and Alicia James will serve as head coach and assistant coach, respectively, for the national under 15 girls.

They will be preparing a squad of 27 players for the Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship, which takes place in Tampa, Florida, from July 31 to August 7.

Both Vincent and James have said that they are honoured to be a part of this moment in history.

“Personally, for me, I was really honoured that I was even considered for the post and to now be chosen with a former teammate, a friend, a sister, and someone who shares the same views as me as it relates to our passion for the development of the women’s game - it’s a tremendous feeling,” Vincent said.

“For me, it’s always a pleasure to be a part of a national team in whatever capacity,” James said.

Vincent said it is not very often that women across the world are given administrative posts in traditionally ‘masculine’ sports because of the stereotype view of women are not able to lead.

She said she would like to use this opportunity to oppose this and other negative views against females in sports.

“The only way we can use this opportunity to oppose the stereotype is to just go out there and get the team to perform at optimum level, to the best of our ability,” she said.

Vincent said women are given a hard time in sports, and it is time for them to take a stand.

“Once there is a position and a male counterpart goes up (to contest it), then he automatically becomes one of the front runners. But in a world where we see women, black women, stepping to the forefront, I think now is the time for us to take our rightful place in the world,” she said.

James said that Jamaica having a national team being directed by only women for the first time, will encourage more females who are interested in football to go after administrative roles and fill the gap locally.

“A lot of past players I know are interested in coaching, [and] seeing that Tashana and I got this opportunity, I think this will encourage a lot of them to come out and take part in coaching courses, so that they can get themselves licensed to be a part of football in general; not only at the national level, but we also need a lot of female coaches at club level and at the school level,” James said.

However, Vincent said better opportunities must be provided for women for them to achieve this.

“Any aspect of the game that females express an interest in, we need to make it easily accessible for them to do courses and get trained to be able to take up these positions, because I think one of the main problems is the lack of available courses to get certified to be able to go up for certain posts,” Vincent said.

She said that despite many women in Jamaica being qualified for administrative roles, they continue to face difficulties.

“I am in the field, and I know a lot of female coaches who have similar qualifications, and some are even more qualified than our male counterparts, but for some reason [women] are being overlooked for not only coaching positions, but several other positions within the sport,” Vincent said.

James said she hopes one day the bias against females will stop and women will lead more local football organisations.

“For me, I wouldn’t mind seeing a female being the head of the federation (Jamaica Football Federation). That is my wish for football in the future, because we have a lot of past players and business-minded females in the country that would relish the opportunity to act in such a capacity,” James said.

However, Vincent said this will not happen overnight, and women will have to make the extra effort for a change.

“We are going to need time to turn the programme around. But as former players, we have the passion to change the whole scope of the game [and] how people view us, not only as female players, but also as coaches and administrators,” Vincent said.