Over the next few months the Cayman National Women will be preparing for the upcoming Caribbean championships to be held here in Grand Cayman between the 18th and 26th of August, the games to be held at the Cayman Rugby grounds on South Sound Road.
This will be the first championship the ladies from Cayman will have embarked on, previously having only played the seven a side code and one fifteen a side game against Jamaica in June 2004, this will be the first international match since that fixture.
The national squad which currently trains at St. Ignatius school on Monday and Wednesday evenings (5.30pm Start) is made up of local and ex pat athletes between the ages of 18 and 40, with the aim to target more Caymanians from the high school program currently being run at John Gray by Jon Rew and his support staff.
CRFU recently ran a rugby competition for grade 10 girls, with 45 athletes playing full contact in a round robin competition, the athletic ability was ‘amazing’ and the potential for national level athletes to be produced is there in abundance, said organisers.
The next high school girl’s competition will be held today, 22nd June at the Cayman Rugby Club at 9.30am, with the intention to recruit another 15 to 20 players to the National women’s program.
The Caribbean championship is obviously a focal point of the national team, with the Cayman women opening the whole competition off with their fixture against Jamaica at 2.30pm on Sunday 19th August, but then to expand the girls/women’s program by taking it into the communities starting September. The camps for boys and girls aged between 8 and 16 will be run in 5 communities across the island.
The Maples and Calder community outreach program will become the feeder stream to the National Women’s Academy to be initiated in 2008.
The Maples and Calder Community program will be spearheaded by National Women’s Coach David Mays and will become an integral part of community sport for years to come.
The Cayman National Women will then prepare for the Caribbean seven a side championships in Bahamas in November (17th/18th), with the women playing in the Andro Group seven a side touch competition year round, their chances of winning the whole competition is substantially increased with their awareness of this variant to the game.
Currently the National women don’t have a sponsor for the two Caribbean Championships in Grand Cayman and Bahamas, anyone who would like to be involved may contact Richard Adams at 916 7937 or email him at [email protected] to become an integral part of women’s rugby development here in Grand Cayman.
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