GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The ultimate goal for an ambitious footballer is to represent his or her country.

Sixteen-year-old St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) goalkeeper Shereece Young is living that dream with Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz competing at the Caribbean Football Union Qualifiers in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“It means a lot to me to be representing my country because I am not only representing the whole island but everybody in it, and they are looking forward to us doing our best and to make them proud. So the feeling of playing for my country is a very good and it means a lot to me,” said Young.

The young goalkeeper, who came up through the ranks starting at the parish level, then the national Under-15s, knows what it takes to be good at her craft.

“To truly be the best goalkeeper and achieve the success in the game, one needs the proper attitude and strong commitment towards the game.

“You must have good concentration, determination, and as my coach always say, you have to be bold, brave and daring, and I think that I possess all those qualities,” she told the Jamaica Observer here en route to St Vincent.

Young said her approach to the game and life in general comes from a special source of inspiration.

“My mother Sharline Green has been the most influential person behind me and I use her as my motivation to be the best,” she noted.

The Young Girlz will kick start their campaign against St Kitts and Nevis today at the Victoria Park in St Vincent starting at 4:00 pm (3:00 pm Jamaica time), and then close out their campaign against the hosts on Sunday.

“As from the goalkeeping perspective, I think that everyone can expect great things from me because this is a very important tournament, two games that we must win, and I just want to go out there and do my best and keep a clean sheet,” stressed Young.

Young shared her story how she got into football.

“My best friend (Kimberly Walker) played football at STETHS, and she introduced me to it and I decided to give it a try. At that time I was in seven grade,” she remembered.

“At my first training session I didn’t have any boots or anything, so I went with my sneakers and, of course, all the girls were bigger than me and so I tried my best to match up with them. I started at the position of right back at first,” Young added.

As far as her goalkeeping story goes, she got between the sticks in a baptism of fire.

“A girl by the name of ‘Finney’ who was a very good striker, and I was saving some of her shots and everybody was like, ‘Shereece, you are a big ‘keeper, you are a big ‘keeper. ‘

“Even though I didn’t have the right technique at the time, I was saving the shots. After training the team manager, Miss Bryan, called me and told me that she was going to make the goalkeeping coach work with me and from there it all began,” Young recalled.

— Ruddy Allen