James Baird, the new Head of Women’s football as well as the new National Team Coach, has delivered on his promise to hit the ground running with the delivery of the first trials on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. Photo: BVIFA

Scotsman James Baird is the new Head of Women’s Football in the [British] Virgin Islands. Photo: BVIFA

With James Baird at the helm and bursting with energy and enthusiasm, the BVIFA is optimistic that Women’s football will soon be back where it belongs and competitive, not only locally, but also regionally. Photo: BVIFA/Facebook

Over thirty girls of all ages made the effort to attend the trial on the pitch at East End/Long Look and Baird was very impressed with the talent he saw, a press release from the BVI Football Association (BVIFA) stated.

“Getting that many, which is a lot more than I thought we'd get, was amazing and kudos to all those who came out for making the effort,” noted Baird.

“I wanted to make sure we started off well, especially with quite a few of the girls coming home for Christmas, and it was the ideal opportunity for me to meet them and see them play. Also, a lot of the girls that came out that hadn't have played previously, in any of the women's competitions, so there were a lot of new faces, which was really encouraging,” he added.

Whilst the Christmas Festivities will hold him up briefly, Baird hopes to announce the full backroom staff early January and once everything has been ratified by the BVI Football Association (BVIFA) he will confirm his plans for the rest of the season.

‘Great to see the talent on show’

“At the trials, we had a really good eleven-side game, and from my perspective, it was great to see the talent on show especially as we played an eleven-a-side game, which even though many of them haven't played that type of game in a while went really well performance-wise,” confirmed Baird.

“We will start training hopefully in January, maybe the second week, twice weekly training and will start building up from there, but overall it was wonderful and as I say, it's all credit to the girls because it should be about them. I hope to really provide them with lots of opportunities and lots of football going forward,” he added.

With Baird at the helm and bursting with energy and enthusiasm, the BVIFA is optimistic that Women’s football will soon be back where it belongs and competitive, not only locally, but also regionally.