The trio of strik­er J’Eleisha Alexan­der, de­fend­er Che­ri­na Steele and mid­field­er Orielle Mar­tin who rep­re­sent­ed the T&T se­nior women’s team at the re­cent Con­ca­caf Women’s Gold Cup Qual­i­fiers, are in a na­tion­al Un­der-17 girls’ team to take part in the Jew­els of the Caribbean U-17 Women’s tour­na­ment, start­ing Sat­ur­day.

The tour­na­ment, be­ing put on by the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and Grena­da Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tions, will see round-robin ac­tion at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Mal­abar, Ari­ma as well as at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, be­gin­ning from to­day with a dou­ble­head­er at the Ari­ma fa­cil­i­ty.

This coun­try will have two teams in the com­pe­ti­tion, the T&T U-17s, the ‘A’ unit, un­der head coach Ayan­na Rus­sell and the T&T Young Stars, the ‘B’ squad, will be coached by Afiya Matthias.

The tour­na­ment will kick off with the T&T ‘B’ team com­ing up against their St Vin­cent and the Grenadines coun­ter­parts from 1 pm. There­after, the T&T ‘A’ team will meet the Grena­da U-17s at 3 pm.

Alexan­der, Steele, and Mar­tin were in­volved in ac­tion for the se­nior team as re­cent­ly as De­cem­ber 5 when the T&T women gave a brave per­for­mance against Con­ca­caf gi­ants Mex­i­co in a 1-0 de­feat at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um.

Rus­sell will be hop­ing to utilise these play­ers to her ben­e­fit. They are part of an 18-man ros­ter.

Both teams com­prise play­ers from the High-Per­for­mance Pro­grammes un­der head coach Mar­lon Charles. The Young Stars team is ex­pect­ed to fea­ture play­ers from both the U-14 and U-17 high-per­for­mance teams, such as mid­field­ers Mikay­la Guerero, Ah­mee­da Bow­man, Oni­ka De­noon, Gyasi Lewis, and Jay­da Her­bert.

Ac­tion will con­tin­ue on Sun­day and Mon­day with round-robin play be­fore it cul­mi­nates with a third/fourth match as well as the ti­tle show­down on Wednes­day at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um.

Ad­mis­sion to the match­es is free.

Match­es

Sat­ur­day

T&T ‘B’ vs SVG, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, Ari­ma, 1 pm

T&T ‘A’ vs Grena­da, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, 3 pm

Sun­day

SVG vs Grena­da, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, 4 pm

T&T ‘A’ vs T&T ‘B’, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, 6pm

Mon­day

Grena­da vs T&T ‘B’, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, 1 pm

T&T ‘A’ vs SVG, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, 3 pm

Wednes­day

3rd/4th Place Play-Off, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, 1 pm

1st/2nd Place Play-Offs, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, 3 pm

Teams

T&T U-17 (A)

Goal­keep­ers: Mikaela Year­wood, Maya Figgen­er

De­fend­ers: Anas­ta­sia O’Brien, Jas­mine Mc Nish, Kimo­ra Mitchell, Kait­lyn Dar­went, Kani­ka Ro­driguez, Cher­ine Steele, Tashana Hack­ett

Mid­field­ers: Che­ri­na Steele, Orielle Mar­tin, Rashe­da Archer, Mari­ah Williams, Madi­son Camp­bell, Ty’ Kaiya Denn­nis, Da­neelya Sa­landy

For­wards: J’Eleisha Alexan­der, Dan­na Pacheco,

T&T Young Stars (B)

Goal­keep­ers: Akeila Mar­ryshow, Zade Castil­lo

De­fend­ers: Daniel­la Paul, Chris­sa Bai­ley, Ha­keemar Goodridge, Taya Williams, Geneisha,George

Mid­field­ers: Mikay­la Guerero, Ah­mee­da Bow­man, Oni­ka De­noon, Gyasi Lewis, Jay­da Her­bert, Rori Git­tens, Alex­is Raye- Lalchan

For­wards: Naima Julius, Jes­si­ca Nes­bitt, One­sha Gre­gouir, Shakil­la Hamil­ton

Staff

Mar­lon Charles (High-Per­for­mance Pro­gramme head coach), Ayana Rus­sell (head coach WU17), Afiya Matthias (head coach T&T Young Stars), Ri­car­da Nel­son (man­ag­er), Patrice Su­perville (asst man­ag­er), Kiren John­son (Medic), Lisa Jo Ramkissoon (goal­keep­ing coach), Raquel Rus­sell (equip­ment man­ag­er).