Former Reggae Girl wants more development - Overjoyed with team's historic qualification

Former national representative Jodi-Ann McGregor has applauded the current Reggae Girlz for historically qualifying for the 2019 Women's World Cup in France.

She, however, wants more to be done for the development of the sport locally to safeguard the future.

"Everyone would be happy for the girls. For me, it's special because I was once part of the Reggae Girlz team. I would have loved to be part of it to make it even more special, to know that we have been trying for so long, from I was 12. Now we have a young set of girls who have done it for us, so I'm just overwhelmed," she said. "If I was there, I think I would cry."

But McGregor, who has won nine National Premier League titles with Barbican, believes we should not get carried away in the hype of the moment.

She outlined the need for the development of young girls at the grass-roots level, leading to a better-structured Premier League, so that Jamaica doesn't have to go for overseas-based players only.

"If you look at other countries and clubs around the world and how they train, everything they do is high intensity and game situation from a very young age. So for us, if we are going to be training and playing on a lazy, basic level all the way up to the adults, it won't be successful," she said.

McGregor, 33, is a physical education teacher and coach at the Heinz Simonitsch School in St James.

She led Real MoBay Women to the finals of the Jamaica Football Federation/Lascelles Women knockout competition, where they were beaten by Waterhouse Women last month.

She also coached the St James Under-15 female team that finished third in the all-island competition recently.

McGregor said that the overseas-based players aren't much different from the locals in terms of talent.

"I just think that they have more experience in terms of the high-intensity game play. When I was in college, I got used to that but when you come back out here, you have to drop the level of playing," she said. "How we can change that is to start that high intensity in how we train from the grass roots coming into the high schools. If we don't do that, then it doesn't make sense because yes, we create history, but we might not be able to do it again."