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Contributor/ Alexis Monteith

At just 20 years of age, college footballer Kameron Simmonds has already represented Jamaica at the highest levels of the game. She marked a major milestone with her Women’s World Cup debut at the 2023 tournament in Australia, coming on for the Reggae Girlz in the 80th minute of their 1-0 win over Panama.

Jamaica exceeded expectations, going unbeaten in the group stage and reaching the round of 16, where Simmonds also appeared in a 1-0 loss to Colombia

But her career, while promising, is also challenging because as women’s football becomes more professional, the growing divide between college, club, and international play makes it tougher for college players to compete globally.

Confronting the Gap

Brazilian football icon Marta noted in a recent YouTube interview on The Women’s Game that young professionals often struggle to match the intensity and speed required on the international stage.

“You need to find a way, you need to train maybe a little bit extra,” Marta advises these players. “Because when you go out and play tournaments like the Olympics or the World Cup you’re going to play against players that are so fit, so fast. You are not going to have success if you …don’t prepare for that.”

Marta was pointing out the gap between two tiers of professional football. For non-professional college players, the challenge is even greater.

Simmonds, a regular call-up for Jamaica these days, has firsthand experience of the difficulties. In her interview with Our Today she echoed Marta’s sentiments.

“I definitely do feel that gap,” she affirmed. “From the very first time that I was called into camp in 2022, that was the first thing that I noticed, just the difference in the speed, the technicality, and the physicality of the girls I was playing against. With the little bit of experience that I’ve gotten in some games and even just training, I’ve been able to kind of understand and get accustomed to it.”

Pushing the limits in training

So how does Simmonds, who currently plays as a wingback for Florida State University (FSU), adapt to the demands of international football? She elevates her training to a higher level, pushing beyond her college experience to meet the demands of international football.

“I think overall when I am training, with the training habits that I am around at school now at Florida State University, I try to be as fast and as intense as possible because I know what it takes,” the Reggae Girl explained. “When we were playing against Brazil I felt the speed. So I try to just go one hundred percent as often as I can because of that.”

“I wouldn’t say there’s anything in particular I do if it comes to cones and working on dribbling or tight spaces,” she elaborated. “I’m just doing that very quickly. I’m going full speed. Even if I do a bad rep, it’s about not putting my head down and shaking my head. It’s immediately going to the next one. Just things like that.”

Leveraging the FSU advantage

Simmonds’ elite college environment complements her training strategies. Having recently transferred from the University of Tennessee to FSU, a powerhouse that has produced World Cup stars and top-tier professionals, she is now immersed in a culture of high performance. The Seminoles’ rosters of the past boast an enviable lineage of talent, including recent graduates now playing in European leagues and former students like Jenna Nighswonger, Casey Krueger, and Emily Sams, who became Olympic gold medalists with the U.S. women’s national team in 2024.

“I think the overall mindset and goal of everyone involved in Florida State soccer is to go pro and play international football,” Simmonds affirmed. “That’s why I decided to go there because being in the Jamaica national team and wanting to play pro I felt like it would be the best way to prepare myself. I have two more years at FSU and I think the experience that I will get, even from just being there this past spring, will help me so much to up my game and develop in so many ways.”

This year, Simmonds also joined the pre-professional USL W League, playing for Richmond Ivy in Virginia—a club representing the local football community with which her family has strong connections. While the competition isn’t as intense as international or professional football, she has seized the opportunity to stay active between college seasons, honing her speed, training rigorously, and pushing her limits to keep improving as a player.

Leaning on family support

Balancing college and football is gruelling but Simmonds is sustained by an abundance of motivation. With her father and grandfather being former Jamaica national team players and with a brother playing for Jamaica at the youth level, football runs in her blood. A passion for representing Jamaica, fuelled by her family legacy, drives her forward.

“I just love the game,” she asserted. “And I was around it so much growing up when my dad played. Now, his career is being a coach and helping kids technically.”

Her father, Gregory Simmonds, remains a powerful presence in her training and development, but his role has evolved with the progress of her career. Though he no longer needs to be a motivator, he is still there as a supportive presence.

“He’s available and it helps so much.” the Reggae Girl explained. “I think the difference with him is that he has been there since I first touched the ball and he has watched so closely. So he knows me in and out as a player with my abilities and my mental side.”

“If he sees something that is off he is the first to say it,” she related. “And even if I don’t want to believe it or talk about it, he will say it and make me realise ‘hey, what’s going on?’Today wasn’t your best’ – whether it was a game or practice. And that really helps because I need that. It has been so influential on me in the best way possible to have him so close and involved with my career.”

Embracing a winning mindset

Confidence in her training is strong, but Simmonds insists a winning mentality is the extra edge. This means aiming to dominate every individual battle from aerial challenges to one-on-one duels. She stresses accountability and a culture where teammates hold each other to high standards, sharing the same ambition to win trophies..

While that might sound like a sports cliché, Simmonds contends that the 2023 Women’s World Cup proved this mentality was Jamaica’s secret weapon.

“I’ve seen it,” she declared. “I felt it.”

She emphasised that the Reggae Girlz’ success—holding heavyweights France and Brazil to scoreless draws, defeating Panama, and advancing before falling to Colombia—was fueled by a collective spirit of determination to prevail.

“I feel like it was everything,” she said. “I have spoken about our preparation with all of us not having been together for a long time and not having proper training environments and accommodations. But everyone just brought that mentality and defied so many odds. I’m pretty sure only a slim percentage of people thought that we would actually get as far as we did, make it out of the group stage and draw against Brazil.”

“Mentality was literally everything,” she continued. “We talked about it all the time as a team. We would have group meetings all the time just to really make sure everyone was on board and dialled in because we were at the World Cup. There were no more questions about whether we were good enough or whether we deserved this. We were there. So all we had to do was go perform and prove everyone wrong.”

Harnessing the Reggae Girlz experience for future success

With two years left at college Simmonds is aiming to go professional when she completes her education. And part of her ambition is to establish herself in the Reggae Girlz team.

“I mean definitely I want to be playing in another World Cup and having a starting role, being an influential player on that team,” she said. “I feel like that’s my main long term goal right now.”

Defying the odds with the Reggae Girlz at the 2023 Women’s World Cup has not only validated Simmonds’ own personal training strategies and winning mindset, but it has also forged a sisterhood among all the team members that the younger players can rely on for guidance and inspiration.

“The experience that [the older players] have, playing for so long, winning trophies, titles and awards, has me looking up to them in training and in games, just knowing that they are always going to know what to do and always going to know what to say based on the experience of players like Bunny (Shaw) or Drew (Spence), Allyson (Swaby) and Den Den (Deneisha Blackwood),” Simmonds underscored.

Her blueprint for success is clear: leverage every resource at her disposal—from personal strategies and philosophies to the opportunities and advantages of her football environment—to reach the highest levels of the game.