This week we profile Bermudian international defender Kennesha Nanette, who was on the roster of Cardiff Metropolitan University of Wales last month in the UEFA Women's Champions' League Group stage matches, while studying at the school that fields a team in the Welsh Premier Women's League. We also look at the large number of Bermudians that play collegiately abroad.
Bermuda's Kennesha Nanette combines national team play, Women's Champions League and university studies in Wales.
Bermudian international defender Kennesha Nanette was on the roster of Cardiff Metropolitan University of Wales last month in the UEFA Women's Champions' League Group stage matches. Cardiff Met finished a credible second in Group 3 behind Hibernian of Scotlandfalling by 2-1 scoreline in their crucial match on August 10while defeating hosts Pomurje Beltinci of Slovenia 1-0 and Nike of Georgia 5-1. Cardiff Met used 11 imports on their roster, including 7 England natives, 3 imports from the U.S, and Bermuda's Nanette.
Kennesha Nanette was born and grew up in Bermuda. She moved to the U.K. after high school, explaining: "Throughout middle school I played and travelled with a local club, Bermuda's Brazilian Football School. We travelled to Holland, Germany, England and Orlando, Florida to train and play at various clubs. We trained at clubs such as Ajax and Chelsea's training academies. I also played football throughout school, in local school leagues and various other tournaments."
Over time, she attracted the attention of local youth national team coaches and eventually those of the full national team, but for the latter, by that time she was abroad at school in England: "I never had the chance to travel due to academic commitments until last summer, August 2018 [when] I travelled with the Bermudian women's national team to Jamaica to compete in the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifiers, where I gained my first cap for Bermuda. It was a very humbling experience to be chosen to represent my country internationally for the first time."
Note: Bermuda won its first round Caribbean Qualifying Group in May 2018, defeating Barbados (3-2) and Suriname (1-0) and tying Guyana 2-2. They moved onto the final round in Jamaica and finished fourth out of five sides, falling to the eventual 2019 WWC finalist Jamaica 4-0, second place Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 and third place Cuba 2-0, before defeating Antigua and Barbuda 5-0.
Nanette was asked what Bermuda's Football Association (BFA) needed to do in the future to improve women's football in her nation and she replied: "As a team we believe that in order to improve football in the country, we would need more support from the BFA as a whole. As a women's national team we have a lack of international competitions and preparation for tournaments before competitions. The lack of preparation is not up to par compared to the preparation that the Bermuda male teams receive before tournaments. We believe that the Bermuda male teams are afforded more privileges and support when it comes to participating in international tournaments than the Bermuda Women's team. Many of the ladies on the team have played football at highly competitive levels, whether it be overseas clubs or in college. The talent in Bermuda is vast and there are many talented players on the island. As a whole Bermuda football is changing and moving forward, however as female players, we are being short-changed and left behind." Her complaint about a lack of games and support is a common one, not only among other Caribbean Football Union members but with nations in other continental confederations, which have seen the men's sides allocated a lion share of team and league competition budgets; even in cases where the men's budget is comparatively meager, it still dwarfs the women's allocation.
In terms of if she felt as if there was a knock-on effect of Jamaica being the first Caribbean nation to qualify for a Women's World Cup in France this past summer and the hope to replicate that success in Bermuda or other CFU nations, she said: "One of the major differences between us and countries like Jamaica is that they have enough people backing them and supporting their movements forward. It was really encouraging to see Jamaica make it to the 2019 Women's World Cup as they were a part of our qualifying group stage. It made the success of a CFU nation feel realistic and achievable and hopefully in the future Bermuda will make it there."
She explained some additional information about Cardiff Met, where she is starting her third year and is working on a BSc in Strength and Conditioning Rehabilitation and Massage: "The majority of the team are university students who represent the university on a Wednesday in BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport). We also compete in the Welsh Premier League on a Sunday where some of the students along with alumni and other players compete on a weekly basis." Whilst in England, the first club she played for was Solihull Moors (Women's National League Division 1 or the fourth division of women's football) and then Birmingham & West Midlands in the same division up until she moved to Wales.
She described her future aspirations regarding football: "My goals, in relation to my football career in the future, I see myself continuing to play in Wales or potentially back in England again. I'm more focused on my career path rather than my future football career. My future career aspirations would be to work pitch side or with a football club, even if that meant I couldn't play again. At least I will still be involved in the sport.But, if at any point an opportunity arises to play elsewhere I would definitely consider taking it, but right now I'm just taking it one day at a time."
Kennesha Nanette is certainly one to watch in the future and hopefully in her time at Cardiff Met, she can help her club become the first Welsh side to make the round of 32 in the Women's Champions League while still continuing to play for Bermuda's national team. She also clearly sees that there are other future opportunities to work in women's football beyond playing and coaching, which are vital to the further development of the women's game.
Note: It is common for Bermuda's national team players to go to play collegiately in the U.S., Canada or in England, typically gravitating to smaller NAIA or Junior Colleges, which typically are more focused on and have more scholarship funds available for international student-athletes. Eva Frazzonifrom Southampton, Bermudawent to the acclaimed IMG Academy in Florida and will be a senior this fall at the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York. Marley Christian played at Howard University in Washington D.C. for three years, after spending one year at Bryant University (Smithfield, Rhode Island) and grew up in Maryland. Taznae Fubler will be a junior at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine while Jade Stewart attends Holland College in Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Keunna Dill played at Drexel and is now playing at Norwich Cityin the fourth division of women's footballwhile studying at the University of East Anglia. Akeyla Furbert played at the University of South Carolina-Aiken from 2012-15.
Teyah Lindo played at Eastern Florida State College, a junior college power, and was on the squad for the World Cup qualifiers last year in Jamaica; this year she will be a sophomore at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. Nia Christopher is a high school player from Maryland. Ember Butterfield is a junior at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia.
Micah Pond and Deshae Darrell helped Brookhaven with the National Junior College Athletics Association Division Women's Soccer Championship in 2017; Darrell was the tournament's Most Valuable Player with 5 goals. Brookhaven College is a community college located in Farmers Branch, Texas, outside of Dallas.
Aliyah Nolan finished her career at the University of North Texas for two seasons in 2017 and 2018 (with 17 goals) after time at Navarro Community College in Texas; she scored 23 goals in 2016 and was North Texas' first international player.
Jaylen Bean (24) received considerable attention from the local Royal Gazette as a teenager coaching at Bermuda's Brazilian Football School while still in high school. The BBFS was an eight-week after-school program that allowed middle schoolers to play football safely and learn valuable life skills. Bean explained: "I am working with students' ages five to 12 years old. I like working with the little ones the best. They do look up to me. With coaching, the hardest thing to learn was dealing with different attitudes. I think that is why [BBFS] coach Cal [Blankendal] first got me involved because there were a lot of male coaches. Now when the girls say 'I can't do this or that because I'm a girl' they can see me doing it and know that they can do it too. The number of girls in the program is getting better. I think the ones that are there go back and tell their friends about it and more come." Bean trained in England at West Ham and then she played in Virginia for the Northern Virginia Majestics of the United Soccer League under-17 super Y-League, via a Bermuda Football Association youth academy program.
Khyla Brangman has played at Middlesex University in England, and previously played at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. She told the St. Augustine Times in August 2012 when comparing her new college to playing at home for the national side: "My team right now would absolutely kill the national squad. It's more serious here, more disciplined. In Bermuda it's more relaxed and the favorites get to play no matter what. That's not the case here.The preseason in Bermuda is really relaxed. But over here I was getting flipped, hit to the ground, and that's when I noticed that I needed to step my game up big time."
In the States, college soccer at all levels is still very important in developing players from abroad, as well as domestic players. Though many Bermudan internationals play at smaller schools in more rural areas of the country, these schools are reliant on imports to elevate the level and of soccer to their relatively small base of local players (as many American programs still stress physicality over technical skills),. Many of these schools are located in communities that have few local soccer clubs that they can recruit from. The colleges benefit the international federationsparticularly in a case like Bermuda's with so many players abroad; we saw that many Jamaicans on this summer's WWC side in France played collegiate in the States. With so many players in North America and Great Britain, it can also help the federation to find and recruit a few of their diaspora who qualify through their parents or grandparents to the national team program.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get your copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
