HEAD coach of Jamaica’s Under-23 football team Jerome Waite is pleased with the steady progress being made by the team ahead of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Olympic Qualification tournament.

Waite will lead the team in the absence of Miguel Coley, who is on assistant duty with the senior team in Chile, and will be assisted by Under-17 coach Andrew Edwards.

“Well, the preparations have been great; it is good to have the nucleus of players here and they are working assiduously and we just continue to work. We still have two more training sessions for this week and then we wrap it up and look forward to the games,” Waite told the Jamaica Observer after a training session at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Training Centre at UWI on Thursday.

Having earned favourable results in their two recent practice games, Waite pointed out that the players are getting accustomed to each other.

“It has been good we won both games, so it is to see how well they gel together. They are playing well, but there is always room for improvement, because it is the first time they are together as a unit… you can see the level of intelligence in their game and we just want them to continue doing well and stay injury free,” he said.

The team will depart for the Dominican Republic on Monday, where they were initially slated to oppose the hosts, Curacao and St Lucia in Group Three. However, Curacao have withdrawn from the tournament, which will result in only the top team advancing to the CONCACAF stage of the qualifiers in August.

At the completion of the CONCACAF round, the top two teams, in addition to another from the play-offs, will represent CONCACAF at next year’s Olympic Games in Brazil.

“The Under-23 at any Olympic qualifying has never advanced to the next round, and when you analyse this team compared to teams of the past, it is a good opportunity for this team to move out of the zone, so we are looking forward to it,” said the veteran coach, who recently guided Arnett Gardens to the Red Stripe Premier League title.

“It is good the overseas-based are conforming (as) they are more professionals and the local-based players are learning that role and they have gelled and are really working well,” Waite ended.

Squad: Nico Campbell, Ramone Howell, Sean McFarlane, Andre Morrison, Jovanni Simms, Omar Holness, Richard Trench, Patrick Khouri, Ricardo Oldham, Andre Lewis, Romario Williams, Damion Lowe, Rennico Clarke, Michael Seaton, Jamar Loza, Junior Flemmings, Paul Wilson, Kereen Manning, Vishinul Harris, Leon Bailey, Raylon Paisley, Sheldon McKoy, Rojay Smith and Amal Knight.