FRESHLY appointed senior women's football team interim head coach Kenwyne Jones held his second training session with the group at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva on Tuesday and believes the mixture of experience and youthful talent serves as a good recipe for positive performances ahead.
Jones, former national men's captain and striker, made these remarks in his first public appearance as coach in a virtual press conference held by the TT Football Association (TTFA), on Tuesday.
He was appointed coach on Monday after being contacted by the TTFA's normalisation committee. Strangely enough, Jones replaced now ex-women's coach Constantine Konstin, who took up the role last Wednesday and 'stepped down' for personal reasons four days later.
Konstin though was appointed following the surprise exit of another recent ex-women's senior team coach, James Thomas, who resigned on October 6 for greener pastures in the United Kingdom professional women's league after just five months in charge.
Jones, however, will serve at the helm of the team until November 30 while the process for the appointment of the long term head coach begins early next month.
Moving forward, Jones said, 'The biggest strength of this team, because of the mixture right now, we have some experienced players we have some young players and some up and coming players in the team.
'The biggest strength for me is that after looking at them going through this period, as any player would know, every team needs a story. He added that there are a couple of returning players on the team who would have had past training and competitive experiences over the years. Jones wants the more senior players to use these experiences as fuel to nurture the younger players for the future of TT women's football.
'We have players that would have past experiences at different times in their careers. But now you have them at the point where they're a lot more mature and being able to turn those experiences and stories into a masterpiece to pass on to the people who are going to be in their positions in a few years or so,' he added.
The 37-year-old said he may even consider throwing his hat into the ring for the permanent position if all goes well after his six-week stint as coach.
However, he does not wish to distract himself with any long term plans with the team and wants to focus on working with them ahead of next week's two international friendlies (Thursday and Monday) against Panama, at the Couva stadium.
These two matches will serve as warm-ups ahead of the February 2022 Concacaf women's qualifiers.
'(I have) no concerns about (this) post in the long term. I can only focus on what I have in front of me. I have to concentrate on the task at hand and when that is said and done, if all things being well, I personally have no problem in throwing my hat in the ring (for head coach).
'What I can say is that during this period I am fully committed to the work that has to be done with the team and the stability that has to be brought to the team,' he said.
