The Tribune

THE Bahamas’ 12-member women’s national beach soccer team returned from the National Beach Soccer League Fort Lauderdale Pro-Am Open 24 over the weekend.

Even though the team finished with a 2-2 win-loss record, losing in the consolation round, head coach Daria Adderley said she was quite pleased with their performances as they were able to show some improvement since they last competed in 2023.

Along with Adderley were assistant coach Lashane Dean and team manager Ariell Rolle. The players were Lashane Dean, Ariell Rolle, Karen Wert, Jodei Clarke, Janeka Edey, Alicia Telle, Rokesia Sands, Jada Thelamour, Jade Thelamour, Christabelle Izevbizua, Taleah Thompson, Gina Stubbs and Alison Ferguson. The team played their first game on Friday, winning 5-4 over Santa Cruz as Karen Wert scored two goals and Jada Thelamour, Taleah Thompson and Karina Almonor got one each.

On Saturday, the team played three games.

In their first game, they lost 5-4 to SEVWSA with Wert again scoring twice, while Jada Thelamour and Janeka Edey got one apiece. They got shutout in their third game against Beach Soccer LA, but came back in their final game to avenge the defeat to SEVWSA 6-4 score as Karen Wert produced another pair of goals and Janeka Edey, Alicia Telle, Rokesia Sands and Jodei Clarke got one each.

Playing out of Group C, the Bahamas finished second. Their loss to Beach Soccer LA dropped them into the consolation round where they regrouped for the win over SEVWSA.

“We’ve been working for the past year preparing for the tournament,” Adderley said. “Every year, we continue to get better. Our tournament was in March in Mexico and we saw some things we needed to work on.

“We came home and have been working since March on those things. When we played, we executed everything we were working on. There are still some things we need to work on, but to improve on those things, we need to play more games and in tournaments like this.”

Adderley, an executive of the Bahamas Football Association, thanked her fellow members, led by president Anya James, for pushing the women’s national team to the forefront. She noted that with their support, the women’s programme can only flourish.

Playing against eight other women’s teams, Adderley said the competition was stiff with every game played very competitive.

“Our ladies played exceptionally well. We had some challenges, but we tried to overcome them,” she noted. “Every game, our first period was always our best, but we struggled with the second and regrouped and played better in the third.

“We have to work on executing in the second period. But our first and third periods have been exceptionally good. We go to El Salvador in March, so we hope to continue to prepare for that and we play much better than we did in Florida.”

Like the men’s national beach soccer team, which has played a number of tournaments here at home at the National Beach Soccer Stadium and overseas, Adderley said she’s glad that the BFA is putting the emphasis on the women’s programme.

“Once we started competing in every tournament we’ve gone to, we’ve seen the improvements,” she stated. “Persons have actually come up to us and indicated to us that this is the best women’s national team from the Bahamas that they have seen play.

“So with that being said, with the BFA backing the women going to tournaments to compete just like the men, it just shows that the BFA is giving us the opportunity to get better.”