Over 90 schools to compete in Blue Water U15 Championships

Beginning the first week of May 2025, girls from more than 90 secondary schools around the country will embark on a quest for national honours in the Blue Water Shipping Under-15 National Secondary Schools Championships.

The upcoming competition was officially launched on Thursday at the Guyana Football Federation’s National Training Center (NTC) at Providence, where it was revealed that the tournament has expanded from 54 to 91 participating teams.
In addition, a new district will now compete, with Mabaruma now having three schools in the tournament.

GFF President Wayne Forde, during the launch, dubbed the tournament historic and explained the push for girls’ competition at the school level.
“The Under-15 tournament was historic when we launched it back in 2024. At that time, we had 54 schools participating, this year we are targeting 91 schools and to date, we’ve had 66 schools that have confirmed their participation. So, we’re going to break records this year as well,” Forde boasted.
He continued, “Often times, I’ve said there’s a reason why we’re doing what we have been doing – girls football within the school’s system. For the simple reason that we do not have the infrastructure that we would like to have at the club level, where we can ensure that young women can go out to their clubs, play and enjoy the game in a safe and wholesome environment with proper dressing rooms, some of the basic amenities.

“At this stage, we don’t have those facilities at our clubs and it’s for that reason we’re developing all of our football female programme, at the youth level, within the school system.”
Speaking to the success of last year’s tournament which was won by Region Nine’s St Ignatius Secondary; Forde cited the players’ participation in the CONCACAF Girls U15 Championships after the tournament.
The GFF boss explained, “One of the biggest dividends that the 2024 competition paid for this nation is the fact that we selected the National Under-15 team from the Blue Water tournament, who went on and played in the CONCACAF Under-15 Championship [Qualifiers] and performed remarkably well. It’s just by a scrape that they weren’t able to get into the championship.”
On the other hand, Blue Water’s Senior Vice President Richard DeNobrega expressed not only the company’s pride but its commitment to shaping future stars.
DeNobrega expressed, “But to have our girls coming from literally every square inch of the country, it’s a really, really huge opportunity, not just for them. It’s something that we as a country and we, of course, as a company in collaboration with GFF, we’re super proud to be part of that. Of course, we will continue and we’re super excited to see this tournament flourish. We want to see even more goals, excitement, enthusiasm and we want to, of course, see some of you on the international stage in the future, excelling in not only football.”
While the girls will play the initial stage of the tournament within their regions, Regions 2, 3, 5, 10 and Georgetown are set to host the Round of 16 before heading to the NTC at Providence for the quarterfinals onwards.
The tournament is set to begin on Saturday, May 3.