Head coach of Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz Hubert Busby says the upcoming Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games will serve as a crucial development step for a young squad, even as Jamaica continues to grapple with the lack of a consistent Under-20 programme compared to other Concacaf nations.

The CAC Games are scheduled from July 24 to August 8 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

With the tournament falling outside a FIFA international window, Busby explained why several senior regulars will be missing from the squad, which will be coached by Leacroft Lettman.

“This is not a full international window hence the reason why a lot of familiar names aren’t here and that is because they won’t be released either by their schools or by their clubs. They’re not by FIFA rules, they’re not obligated to release those players,” Busby said.

Instead, the Girlz will lean on youth and Busby sees that as a positive.

“With that said, we have some players in here that have been involved in the last year-and-a-half and going back to even the World Cups with the senior team that we’re looking forward to having them take the sort of leadership role within this group.

“This is a young group, consisting a lot of our players that have come through our Under-17 and Under-20 programmes. So this is a great opportunity for them to step up into the next level,” explained Busby.

That step up comes with challenges and Busby acknowledged Jamaica’s historical struggles at the CAC Games, often having to field a mixed squad of youth and experience.

“I think, as far as historically not being able to in terms of some of the results, one of the things that we’ve been deliberately trying to improve on is growing our pool of players to match that of the other top three and four nations within Concacaf,” he said.

A key part of that plan is creating more opportunities for youth players to get senior-level experience and Busby revealed discussions are already underway with the Jamaica Football Federation.

“The other thing that we’ve been deliberately working towards and including having a conversation with the director of football [Andrew Peart] this week, is that actually it is imperative that we have an U-20s group to sort of make up the number of games for these type [of] players so that, going into these sort of events, they would have some more international experience. So it’s really important that we sort of close that gap,” Busby stated.

He pointed to Mexico as the standard Jamaica is chasing.

“This is why, historically, a lot of times you’re asking 17-, 18-, 20-year-olds to go up against, in the case of Mexico, for example, all their players within their squad are full pros playing within the Mexican professional league that are playing week in and week out, having tremendous amount of experience.

“They have come through the youth pathway as well, but they have an Under-20s programme that is operating outside of our senior windows. So until that sort of opportunity or games are provided, it’s very difficult at times to provide these players the opportunities that they need, to gain that experience,” Busby affirmed.

Despite the challenges, Busby says the door to the senior team remains open, but only on merit.

“As you know other than the last two games that we played, the last four games we had as a senior team were World Cup qualifiers. It’s hard to include [some players] unless definitely by merit … because our other senior squad members have been so good,” he said.

Jamaica will play Colombia on July 29, Puerto Rico on July 31, and Mexico on August 2 in Group B action with the top two teams advancing to the semi-finals.

SQUAD:

Goalkeeprs — Liya Brooks and Mariah Scott.

Defenders — Njeri Butts, Akelia Johnson, Dejionee Anderson, Jaileah Cox-McPherson, Kalila Daley, and Shanae Ashley.

Midfielders — Lola Nesbeth, Peyton McNamara, Davia Richards, Destiny Powell, and Samantha Lyew.

Forwards — Maya McDermot, Ricshya Walker, Malayna Johnson-Mighty, Phoenix White, and Alyssa Stephens.