sportsmen on their six-day tour of Florida.

The youngsters, who flew out on Wednesday, are being put through rigorous daily training routines and will play matches against local oppostion today, tomorrow and on Monday.

Their first two days started with a run at 7.00 a.m., then a morning training session at their Orlando base followed by another session in the afternoon.

Dennis Brown, who coaches the squad jointly with Mark Trott, said the idea of the tough schedule was to teach the players what was needed to compete in the Olympic qualifiers next year.

The under-23s will travel to Panama in March to play games against the host nation and Cuba.

One of the three nations will progress to a final qualifying tournament in the United States in April for the right to go to Sydney.

"To play at international level is very hard and we just wanted to let the players know the avenues you have to take to get to the next level,'' said Brown.

"In age group competitions, we usually do fairly well and looking at the contents of our squad, we have a lot of talent.

"It's not going to be easy against Panama and Cuba, but we just have to get the guys believing in themselves. If you believe in yourself you can achieve things.'' Many of the under-23 squad study in the United States and are often unavailable for squad get-togethers, but the Christmas holidays have given most of them an opportunity to join in this time.

Trott and Bermuda Football Asociation's technical director Clyde Best are also in Orlando.

Brown said students John Barry Nusum and Joey Rego were expected to join the party yesterday, boosting the squad to 21 players.

Excellent facilities had helped the training run smoothly, added Brown.

"This complex is where US national teams train when they are in Orlando,'' said the coach. "There are five training pitches and the playing surface is first-class. No disrespect to our clubs, but's it's much better than the pitches we have to play on at home.

"The moment we saw the environment the guys were enthused to give a bit more in training.'' Similar facilities were badly needed in Bermuda, added Brown. "If we really want to take our sport to the next level, these are the avenues we have to take,'' he said.

The squad will fly home on Tuesday and Brown said their next get-together was planned for February.