Houston Dash head coach Randy Waldrum (right) was named head coach of the Trinidad & Tobago women's national team on July 2, 2014. (Photo: Wilf Thorne/Houston Dynamo)
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago -- The Trinidad & Tobago Football Association (TTFA) announced Wednesday that Randy Waldrum has been named head coach of the women’s national team, replacing Marlon Charles.
The move was made as part of an overall strategy to enhance the squad’s prospects of qualifying for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, the TTFA unveiled plans to send the team to a month-long training camp in Houston ahead of the 2014 CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup’s final round, which will be played in Trinidad, August 19-26. From that competition, four teams will progress to the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship in the United States, where the Confederation’s qualifiers for Canada 2015 will be decided.
Waldrum, who currently guides the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, has previous managerial experience in Trinidad. He served as head coach of the under-17 women’s national team at the 2008 CONCACAF Under-17 Women’s Championship. The 52-year-old American also led the University of Notre Dame women’s team to NCAA titles in 2004 and 2010.
Though Waldrum is expected to attend Trinidad’s international friendly on July 6 against visiting Venezuela, he will assume coaching responsibilities upon the team’s arrival in Houston.
In the interim, men’s national team head coach Stephen Hart has agreed to prepare the side for that encounter, plus another against the same opponent two days later.
Trinidad will face Group B opponents Antigua & Barbuda, Martinique and St. Kitts & Nevis in Caribbean Women’s Cup, final round play.
