ST GEORGE’S, Grenada — Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz may not have achieved what they set out to at the CONCACAF Women’s Championships, but there were some positives taken from the failed campaign.

The Jamaicans ended at the foot of Group B without a point following 1-8 defeat to regional giants USA, an error fraught 2-3 loss to Central Americans Costa Rica, and 1-0 clipping by Mexico.

However, in spite of the disappointing scorelines, the young Reggae Girlz team, which fielded 13 overseas-based and seven locals players, were successful in leaving an indelible mark in Grenada.

The perceptions within the opposing camps were that the Jamaican team had improved significantly with each game.

The Girlz stout-heartedness and resilience came as a surprise to many, more so to the Mexicans to whom they gave their most encouraging performance in closing out their campaign at the Grenada National Stadium on Tuesday.

The performances at the tournament have left Hue Menzies, technical advisor for Jamaica’s Women’s football, optimistic about the future of the programme.

“We played against some very well-organised and well-coached teams. obviously our preparation times were not sufficient enough, but the girls showed some resilience after the controversial Costa Rica game. I thought emotionally they came in and gave the effort that we expected of them as Jamaicans,” Menzies told the

Jamaica Observer.

“I spoke to the opposing coaches and they believe the gaps are closing because they have seen a lot of positives from the type of players that we are bringing in. But I think we need to focus a little bit more on the Jamaican players, to try to get a system in place for them.

“And then, hopefully, we can provide some more resources to try to bring both local and overseas players together and come up with a plan, and hopefully we can not only close the gaps, but go beyond our opponents,” he continued.

With the cycle of the female programmes now concluded, Menzies explained that going forward they will be putting measures in place to have the current crop of Under-17 Girlz transition to the next level.

“Nobody likes to lose games, but it gave us an opportunity to evaluate what we have and we feel like we have some good players in place. We just need to go back to the drawing board and figure out a plan to move forward with and take these girls to the next level, because we feel we can compete with anybody in the region,” he noted.

He pointed out that dialogues are ongoing with a few potential “investors”, as they seek to acquire funds to budget more consistent overseas camps for the respective teams throughout the year.

“For us coaches as a staff and the Cedella Marley group, we have already started to pin-point what we have to do to improve the programmes. Everything in this closing cycle happened really fast, but now we have this gap where we can create the calendar and move forward,” said Menzies.

He added: “We have some players who can play at the Under-17 and Under-20 levels that we need to keep developing as we go along. So I think we have the ingredients; we just need to get the pot rolling and that starts with getting all the players together on a more consistent basis.

“But overall, we are pleased with some of the players that we have brought in and I think the more addition we do to the programme, it is only going to help us moving forward.”