Update on T&T Youth Teams Coaching Assignments
Update on T&T Youth Teams Coaching Assignments
The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) can confirm that Shawn Cooper has been appointed as the Head Coach of the National Boys Under-15 team for the upcoming 2023 CONCACAF Boys U-15 Championship in Dominican Republic.
Cooper’s appointment is for the duration of the tournament which runs from 6 to 13 August 2023. Cooper enters the Programme to lend his experience and joins coach Densill Theobald who had been assisting in overseeing the TTFA’s High Performance U-15 Boys Programme dating back to May 2022. Theobald will accompany Cooper at the upcoming Championship as Assistant Coach.
Upon the team’s return home in August, Cooper will continue to serve as one of the coaches within the TTFA High Performance Programme – Boys for the remainder of 2023 with the intention of bridging both the U-15 and U-17 Programmes. Cooper, who was appointed as National Men’s U-17 Head Coach for the 2023 Concacaf Championship in February 2023, will continue to serve in the role as Head Coach of the Men’s U-17 Programme for the next Concacaf Championship qualification cycle. Under his oversight, selected players from the current U-15 High Performance Programme – Boys will graduate to the U-17 National Programme in January 2024.
The head of the TTFA High Performance Programme – Boys is Technical Director Anton Corneal with Yohance Marshall and Gilbert Bateau also serving as Assistant Coaches.
Upon conclusion of the U-15 Championship, Theobald, Marshall and Bateau will continue their duties as High Performance Programme – Boys coaches for the Boys U13 and Boys U15 Programme.
Trinidad and Tobago is grouped alongside Costa Rica, Honduras and Puerto Rico for the upcoming CONCACAF U-15 Boys Championship. Those matches will be played at the Felix Sanchez Stadium. T&T faces Honduras on 6 August, Costa Rica Rica on 7 August and close off the group stage against Puerto Rico on 8 August.
Latchoo to lead U-17 Women, Charles heads U-14 Girls High Performance Group
Currently the High Performance Programme – Girls U-14 team is spearheaded by head coach Marlon Charles. That team is preparing for the upcoming Caribbean Football Union Girls U-14 Challenge Series which will be held in Antigua from 18 to 27 August 2023.
Most of the players have been training within the High Performance Programme and/or recently competed at the TTFA’s G-14 League which concluded in June 2023.
The Women’s Under-17 National Team is also currently preparing for the Concacaf U-17 Women’s Championship Qualifiers under Head Coach Rajesh Latchoo and Assistant Coach Ayana Russell.
The core group of players has been training as part of the TTFA High Performance Programme from May 2022, with almost half of the T&T Women’s Under-20 National Team that competed at the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship Qualifiers in April 2023 being part of Latchoo’s provisional squad.
T&T’s U-17 Women are in Group A with El Salvador, Curacao, Cayman Islands, and Martinique.The Qualifying round robin group stage will be played between 26 August – 3 September 2023. The competition’s calendar will be announced in the coming days.The six group winners will advance to the 2023 Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship, joining the top 2 ranked nations, Mexico and the United States, that have been seeded directly into the Championship’s group stage.
See Accompanying Interview with Shawn Cooper below
