Taken from www.jamaicaobserver.com
Local female footballer gets US scholarship
By Howard Walker Observer staff reporter walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, August 07, 2009
National female footballer Janice "Clio" Rennalls will leave the island today to take up a four-year football scholarship with Faulkner University in Alabama.
Renalls, 27, the current captain of the Barbican Women's team, will join fellow Reggae Girlz Latoya Panton and Lecia Foster at the private, Christian liberal arts university of about 3,000 students.
Rennalls will be pursuing a degree in physical therapy with the hope of completing her masters degree immediately thereafter.
The slender wing-back was spotted by Jeff Ireland, head coach of Faulkner University, while she was in action for Barbican.
"I was looking forward to get a scholarship and it came at the right time because university school fees are expensive out here," Rennalls explains.
Rennalls, who represented St Mary's College in the Schools League in 1997 before moving on to lead The Queen's School to the title in the 1999/2000 season, says she will think about professional football after securing her degree.
"The most important thing is my degree and after... that I might think about it," she told the Observer.
Rennalls, who actually started playing for Jamaica at the beginning of the 2007 Caribbean Olympic qualifiers in Antigua & Barbuda, is inspired by Brazilians Roberto Carlos, of the men's senior team and star player Martha after learning about her prior struggles.
But her introduction to "the beautiful game" started in the narrow streets of her community.
"All the boys in my community were playing football, so for me, it was a matter of jumping on the wagon or be left out. I never had many female friends; as a matter of fact, I was considered a tomboy," she pointed out.
She has grown in stature and has become a permanent fixture of the Senior Women's team.
Rennalls played on numerous Barbican victorious teams and captained the Charles Edwards-coached outfit to the Sherwin Williams Women League title last season.
Local female footballer gets US scholarship
By Howard Walker Observer staff reporter walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, August 07, 2009
National female footballer Janice "Clio" Rennalls will leave the island today to take up a four-year football scholarship with Faulkner University in Alabama.
Renalls, 27, the current captain of the Barbican Women's team, will join fellow Reggae Girlz Latoya Panton and Lecia Foster at the private, Christian liberal arts university of about 3,000 students.
Rennalls will be pursuing a degree in physical therapy with the hope of completing her masters degree immediately thereafter.
The slender wing-back was spotted by Jeff Ireland, head coach of Faulkner University, while she was in action for Barbican.
"I was looking forward to get a scholarship and it came at the right time because university school fees are expensive out here," Rennalls explains.
Rennalls, who represented St Mary's College in the Schools League in 1997 before moving on to lead The Queen's School to the title in the 1999/2000 season, says she will think about professional football after securing her degree.
"The most important thing is my degree and after... that I might think about it," she told the Observer.
Rennalls, who actually started playing for Jamaica at the beginning of the 2007 Caribbean Olympic qualifiers in Antigua & Barbuda, is inspired by Brazilians Roberto Carlos, of the men's senior team and star player Martha after learning about her prior struggles.
But her introduction to "the beautiful game" started in the narrow streets of her community.
"All the boys in my community were playing football, so for me, it was a matter of jumping on the wagon or be left out. I never had many female friends; as a matter of fact, I was considered a tomboy," she pointed out.
She has grown in stature and has become a permanent fixture of the Senior Women's team.
Rennalls played on numerous Barbican victorious teams and captained the Charles Edwards-coached outfit to the Sherwin Williams Women League title last season.
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