SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Former Jamaican captain and goalkeeper Warren Barrett Snr, believes Jamaica’s goalkeeping is in good hands for the foreseeable future, having seen the National Under-17 custodians first hand here in Honduras.

Barrett, 44, was the skipper when Jamaica historically qualified for the 1998 senior FIFA World Cup in France. Interestingly, both Under-17 goalkeepers Jahmali Waite of Jamaica College and Akeem Chambers of St Jago were not yet born.

Just over 16 years later, Barrett is now passing on his knowledge to the next generation of goaltenders.

“There are two young, nice goalkeepers and they are pretty eager. Technically, (they are) still some way to go, but their understanding and knowledge of the game is pretty adept,” Barrett revealed.

“They are really hard-working goalkeepers and that’s what you want from your charges to really motivate you as a trainer to try and help them reach their goals, and both said they want to play at the highest level, so that is good,” he noted.

He continued: “I basically share my wealth of knowledge and experience with them on a daily basis, and I let them know that it’s a lot of hard work and it’s going to take a lot of sacrifice. They will have to fight because there is no easy road to the top of the field.”

That top of the field was where Barrett was for a number of years, where it is believed he earned 127 caps for Jamaica before retiring in 2002.

Barrett, or ‘Boopie’ as he is known by his colleagues, is one of two national goalkeeping coaches employed by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), and he believes that the national programme needs more goalkeeping coaches to unearth and develop the vast talent on the island.

“We need a lot more goalkeeping camps across the island and we need to get some goalkeeping coaches in the national set-up. Myself and Clive Wedderburn are the only two. Loxley Reid is at Montego Bay United and Waterhouse has Leighton Murray, and I think it’s full time they are also drawn into the programme to start working with even the youth teams and that’s the only way they will gain knowledge and exposure,” said Barrett.

“Any country you go, most clubs will have a goalkeeper coach, and it has to get to that level in Jamaica where even high schools have a goalkeeping coach,” he noted.

“Because when they are young, that’s when you need to get to them to correct the deficiencies, the technical errors and the bad habits that they have and that’s the way they will improve,” Barrett re-iterated.

Over the two decades, Jamaica produced quality goalkeepers of the ilk of Barrett, Aaron Lawrence, Donovan Ricketts, Duwayne Kerr, Dwayne Miller, Richard McCallum, Ryan Thompson and Andre Blake, to name a few.

“So it’s a good cadre of goalkeepers who have served their country well and have done us proud. I think the country will be well served for the next decade or so,” Barrett pointed out.

The talent produced locally is clearly of a consistently high standard as when searches are launched for overseas-raised talent, coaches rarely ever seem to add a goalkeeper to their list. This, Barrett opined, speaks volumes to Jamaica’s goalkeeping standards.

“That says much of the confidence, I guess, the federation and technical staff have in the local goalkeepers we have at our disposal,” said Barrett.

He continued: “That (having to look overseas) has never been the case and we are pretty happy for that and we definitely want to keep that going, so it’s my job as one of the goalkeeping coaches to try and unearth new talent and help them to develop their craft and hopefully to contribute, not only to their country, but to gain contracts overseas where they can take care of their families comfortably.”