Talented young sportswoman Katherine Bean-Rosario has been handed the opportunity to play cricket in the Caribbean.

Bean-Rosario, 18, who graduated from Saltus Grammar School last week, is now in Florida for an International Cricket Council high-performance camp alongside coach Terry-Lynn Paynter, who is attending a high-performance seminar.

The pair will then be heading to St Kitts & Nevis on Friday alongside three other players from Bermuda — Chloe Chard, Ja’Shay Trott and Amara Richards.

The four teenagers will have trials for the Leeward Islands Under-19 side. Leeward Islands are a first-class cricket team representing the member countries of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association, an associate of Cricket West Indies.

The Bermudians are scheduled to train on their own between June 15 and 18 before they join the main training camp from June 19 to 29. If selected, the players will then travel to Trinidad to play a string of matches from July 1 to 14.

Described by St George’s coach Clay Smith as a natural talent as far back as 2018, Bean-Rosario is delighted to be part of the camp in the US.

“I’m really excited about this trip and It’s a camp so I’m here to learn,” Bean-Rosario told The Royal Gazette.

“Once again it’s helping me to grow before I try out for the Leeward Islands team. It was also exciting for me to watch the World Cup, I'd never watched the World Cup before and it was so wonderful to have a feel of that atmosphere.

“I feel great about the opportunity to play for the Leeward Islands under-19. It’s something different and it’s a really long trial.

“Hopefully, I can make the team and I would be really happy to do so and represent Bermuda in doing that.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity and I want to be able to learn from it. I want to be able to share with my team-mates and possibly my coaches because I’m not done learning, so what I've learnt, I can also share.”

Last month, Bean-Rosario was voted the Most Valuable Player for Triangle Strikers, a Bermuda select team at the Georgia Women Cricket Association’s 11th annual T20 tournament.

On the three occasions she took to the crease, the right-hander notched up 111 runs, with her best of 49 coming in the team’s loss to Florida Panthers.

Bean-Rosario’s exploits, while playing for Saltus against CedarBridge Academy boys in a schools fixture in early May, caught the attention of the Strikers, who decided to include her on their team.

“I was playing with my school and one of the coaches from the opposing team took a few videos,’’ she said.

“The videos went around and somebody said they wanted me to go on the T20 trip, and that was two weeks later, so I only figured out I was going a week before the trip.

“I hadn't played cricket since middle school but I just picked it back up this year. That game was my first time playing the game.”

For Bean-Rosario, playing in Atlanta allowed her to gear up for the trials in St Kitts.

“It was a good experience and I didn't really take it as a competitive trip,’’ Bean-Rosario said.

“I was using that trip to work and practise different things to prepare me for my next tour.

“I felt that my hard work and the extras that I was doing every day had finally paid off. Although the stats weren't how I wanted them to be, I still played my best and I still turned out to be an MVP, which was a really good accomplishment for me.”

The multitalented sportswoman was part of the Bermuda women’s football squad for the Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup play-offs but missed out on making her debut when St Vincent & the Grenadines did not make the trip to Bermuda after their flight was denied permission to travel on its intended route.

She was on the bench in Bermuda’s last match, an away 2-0 defeat to the Dominican Republic.

Last week, Saltus announced that Bean-Rosario had signed a letter of intent to play for the Monroe Mustang women’s football team, which is the next step in her sporting career as she studies sports management in New York, but she has not ruled out cricket as an option.

“I think the future holds a lot for me in cricket,’’ Bean-Rosario said.

“I can’t wait to finish these next few tours and just see where it takes me.

“After that, I don’t know what the future holds, I just want to take it one day at a time. Hopefully, I can gain recognition from the tours to take cricket to the next level.

“I’m going to college to play soccer as they don’t have cricket at Monroe College. I’m definitely going to miss itwhile I’m in college, but can’t really do anything about it.

“My dream is to play Division One soccer in the US, but I also see something to do with cricket.”