Ah, it is so nice when the under dog starts to achieve. That has been the case for Bahamas Soccer in the past few weeks. A country that stood at the bottom of the Caribbean Soccer Totem Pole has begun to climb.

What has made this former weak team into a power house in the region? Quite frankly, their Technical Director Gary White will tell you “its work.” Something he likes to exclaim on the sidelines of their many nail biting matches.

Currently the Bahamas is through to the second round of the Digicel Caribbean Cup, a tournament created to crown the champions of the Caribbean. Some might say, “that is small potatoes,” but to be crowned champions of any tournament is difficult, let alone one that has 3 world cup finalist amongst the competition (Trinidad and Tobago (06), Jamaica (98) and Haiti (74). This cup is no joke, and the top 3 teams at the end of the tournament will automatically qualify for next years Gold Cup, where all the big boys in the Concacaf battle it out. The Gold cup names the champion of one of the 5 world soccer regions.

So besides work, what can be attributed to the Bahamas’s success. Well, a proper developmental structure that is producing consistent NCAA players, churned from their ranks. A structure that produced a diamond in the rough a short time ago, has begun to roll out a new type of diamond created from the pressure of the Bahamas Football Association.

This Association’s five year goal is to become a power in the Northern Caribbean Region, and they are well on their way. From minnow to middle-of-the-road, Bahamas is producing results–Results that have made country history! The challenge now is to maintain this structure, this manufacturing environment that would most definitely solidify this country with the names of Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.

The Bahamas play their next round of qualifiers in Barbados on Nov. 15 - 24th. You can find out more information about how all the teams in the Caribbean are doing at www.digicelfootball.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 8th, 2006 at 1:19 am and is filed under Soccer World, Kamal de Gregory (Soccer Luminary). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.