"Women playing football? What do they know about football?" A male colleague asked. His incredulous tone and facial grimace says it all. Women are still, in the minds of many men, incapable of dealing with the 'rough and tumble' aspects of one of their treasured sports. Looking at matches on TV or in a stadium is fine for a woman but if you express an interest in playing, get ready to meet the skeptics. Just ask Jinelle James. Her prowess on the field as one of the country's leading strikers has made her a familiar face on the women's football circuit. But she's battling it out again with the dubious as she leads the T&T Under-17 women's football team in her new role - this time as Manager.
"Right now we're training with a core of 16 local girls and 9 foreign-based players. Surprisingly, the majority of the team is from South Trinidad and I say surprisingly because in the past, the core would have been from the East-West corridor. I think this speaks a lot about the hard work some of the South coaches are putting in to get women more involved in the sport," James shared.
But a lot still needs to be done to stir up more interest from young players as James recalled her own involvement in the sport from a young age. "I was the only girl on my street so I started playing football with boys and I wasn't all that interested in watching the sport on TV. To me that was boring. I was 18 when I started playing with a club. We tried to get a team together at St. Francois Girl's College but it didn't work out. The coach there put me on to another coach and I continued in the sport from there. That is what is missing though - I think many schools still place more emphasis on the academic side of things without realising how much a sport like football can benefit students and form more all-rounded women," James shared.
"Sports like football help young women by building character; they learn how to get along with people from a range of backgrounds and they learn more about camaraderie. There are health benefits to be considered of course as well as lifelong skills like time-management. There are some misconceptions people have about women involved in sport like they'll turn out macho or they'll look too masculine but all of that is wrong. The benefits speak for themselves."
Despite problems with the non-believers and challenges with finding good facilities for the players to train, James said she feels a lot has changed in recent times. "Now we have some more support behind us. Mr. (Austin Jack) Warner and the Football Federation have been very supportive of us. We've been getting a bit of help with finding sponsorship but we still need some more backing from corporate Trinidad. The University of the West Indies has been good to us, allowing us to train on their grounds. We also train at the Marvin Lee and Ato Boldon stadiums and the people there are very helpful. So, it's getting there. We're getting there," James said.
"And," she affirmed, "I think people would be pleasantly surprised to see how good these girls play. The matches will be entertaining and I think people will be pleased at how refreshing it is to see young women play good football."