Neo Oxford: the new force in local women’s football development

While the names Reinas Academy and Neo Oxford have become synonymous with Jamaica’s women’s football development, Oxford said his story only began through happenstance and the pleas of young footballers at Meadowbrook High School.

Oxford was the head coach of the Meadowbrook Manning Cup team when he was first approached by female students asking him to create a girls’ team to compete in schoolgirl football competitions.

With the blessing of then school principal Michael Peart, Oxford founded the Meadowbrook High girls’ football team which was his first stint in women’s football.

“My work in female football started back in 2017 while I was the head coach of Meadowbrook and every now and then a girl would come and ask ‘what about us?’” he explained. “One day I approached the principal at the time, Michael Peart, who gave the idea his blessing and that’s where my journey started.”

However, it was not immediate success for Oxford as his first year at the helm came with a few humiliating defeats.

He remembered a specific instance following a loss to Denham Town High where his players broke down in tears after their defeat.

However, he said their tears were proof of their passion and their love for the game.

“I wasn’t totally inspired at the start but I remember a match against Denham Town in our first season and the girls cried after losing. I never saw that level of passion from my male students and that was when I became invested.”

It would take a few years before Oxford’s work bore fruit and during the 2020 ISSA schoolgirls’ football season, Meadowbrook were one of the favourites to take the title.

Safe space for girls

The outbreak of the pandemic halted the team’s season ambitions. However, it gave birth to Oxford’s next leap into women’s football, the founding of Reinas Academy, an all-girls football academy.

“Our goal at Reinas was really to become an environment where girls in Jamaica could start their football conquest earlier and create a space for them where they felt safe learning the sport amongst girls their age,” Oxford said.

Reinas Academy opened its doors with only five players on its books, Tyesha Nelson, Shadine Rutherford, Venessa Stephenson, Lillian Clarke and Dreanna Thaw.

Since then, it has blossomed into one of the most dominant forces in the Caribbean and has developed several of Jamaica’s youth national representatives.

“We have a total of 19 national representatives on our squad, and believe me there are more to come,” he said. “What we have been able to do is to get girls playing the sport. We have the recently concluded the ISSA Construction Hummel International Reinas Cup, an under-20 competition with over 150 girls participating. In Reinas’ four years of existence we have ensured over 500 girls had the opportunity to play football,” he said.

While Oxford has admitted to holding aspirations of coaching at the highest level of women’s football, he said his pride and joy is being able to introduce young athletes to the sport.

“I’m actually living my biggest ambition. Some coaches want to go on and win World Cups and Premier League titles and don’t get me wrong, that would be amazing, but I want to ensure I teach these girls about the opportunities to life.”

He added, “That’s my calling. That is priceless and no trophy can match up to that.”