When three football fans brainstormed ideas on how to shed a bigger spotlight on the talent of youth football in Jamaica, they drew inspiration from models in the overseas market and created their own list of the ‘Top 100’ best youth players in Jamaica.
Woto Sports, founded by the trio of Zachary Duhaney, Trevor Hamilton, and Amel Jones, curated a list of the top 100 youth footballers in Jamaica with the express idea of highlighting their talents.
Duhaney told The Gleaner they were inspired by similar lists done for sports in the United States, similar to the player ranking systems in basketball and American football.
“As football fans ourselves over the years, we came to the conclusion that a lot of our players were not being given the necessary spotlight that they would have required to take themselves to the next level,” Duhaney explained.
“There is a lack of that spotlight here in Jamaica because obviously, in the US and overseas, you can see that there is a lot of spotlight or highlight on a lot of these younger talents coming through,” he continued.
“You can use the NBA for example. We used them as an example to look at, and we have to have that for our country. We think that we have a lot of top talent that have actually gone astray just due to a lack of visibility.”
Duhaney explained that with this idea in mind, they enlisted the help of a number of analysts and sports fans to create their ‘Woto Top 100’ list.
They explained that the list ranks each player based on their “match performance, positional impact, consistency, and level of competition”.
He also explained that the list would be regularly updated in order to properly capture the fast nature of the sport and to ensure that players talents and achievements are being reflected.
SCOUTING POSSIBILITIES
The ‘Top 100’ list will be updated each month, with Duhaney explaining as they continue to gather further data that it is possible for the list to be updated every two weeks.
Duhaney said one of their biggest reasons behind their list is to create a database for scouts to easily assess the top players on the island.
“Really and truly, our focus is more on the players and allowing them to be more visible and then allowing also the scouts to have a platform that they can use to assess some of these players.
“A lot of the scouts are not even aware of the level of talent that is in Jamaica, so we’re giving them an opportunity to look at the players, which gives them an understanding that they can come and view a wide variety of players.”
As of press time, the current top five ranked ‘Woto Top 100; youth players in Jamaica are Adrian Reid of Cavalier, Tawayne Lynch of Cavalier, Glenmuir’s Orane Watson, Excelsior High standout Kimarly Scott, and Chapelton Maroon’s Sean Leighton.
