A ONE-TIME Saints hopeful is among the highest-rated coaches in the Caribbean.

Gary White, whose talents as a right-sided midfield player took him into the Saints FC Centre of Excellence, has just signed up for a two-year extension of his contract as coach of the Bahamas national team.

Against the stunning Caribbean backdrop of Nassau, White has masterminded a footballing revolution.

He's five years into his job as Technical Director for the Bahamas FA, a labour of love which not only embraces coaching the national side but nurturing an academy system which he himself began - for both boys and girls.

The Bahamas is made up of 700 islands, but only four have their own leagues - the biggest on Nassau has 18 teams.

From a population of around half a million, an astonishing 15,000 are registered footballers.

White is a died-in-the-wool Sotonian who went to Oakwood School in Lordswood, Oaklands in Lordshill and played Tyro League football before joining the Saints Centre of Excellence when it was run by the club's legendary star finder Bob Higgins.

But it didn't work out for tricky right-winger White and he went off to play for Jack Pierce at Bognor Regis and Ernie Howe at Basingstoke Town.

He started out on his world travels by playing for Perth and Freemantle in the Australian Professional League.

But he recalls with a wry smile: "Trying to cope with playing as a wing back burned me out as a player. I desperately wanted to stay in the game so I turned to coaching."

Sue Lopez, who revolutionised ladies football in Southampton, was his early mentor but White, now 30, is fully primed with coaching qualifications.

When he obtained his UEFA licence he went to America where he got his first taste of Major League Soccer, coaching youth sides out there before getting the job as Technical Director and national coach for the Virgin Islands.

"At one stage I was the youngest national coach in the world," says White, who lifted the Virgin Island 28 places up the world rankings before landing the Bahamas job.

It's been a challenging experience, with the best Bahamas players spread as far afield as Croatia, Greece and Costa Rica.

He brought four of his best players for a trial to St Mary's and although none were taken on, White will be back with Cameron Hepple, a 17-year-old right-sided midfielder who he rates the brightest young prospect in the Bahamas.

In White's time as national coach, the Bahamas have drawn with Jamaica, who have produced many Premiership players, and lost narrowly to Mexico.

In the World Cup qualifying rounds which started last March, Bahamas went within one match of securing a tie with Mexico.

"We narrowly went out to Dominique in a double-header," says White, whose national side will soon get a new 40,00 stadium in which to parade their talents. Currently, the national stadium holds just 15,000.

For his work in establishing an academy system in the Bahamas, White has received an A Licence, one of the highest qualifications in CONCACAF.

When he returns to Bahamas from his Nursling home next week, he will barely have time to unpack his bags before jetting off to Baltimore where he'll address the National Soccer Coaches Association of America - the biggest national convention of its type in the world.

It's a measure of the esteem in which White is held in one of the major growth areas of world football - and it's a source of great pride to his parents Teresa and Keith, who are season ticket holders at St Mary's.

White has just spent Christmas with them, brothers Matthew and Darren and sister Melanie.

But there's someone special waiting for him on the other side of the Atlantic - fiance Marsha Rambert, a student he met at a FIFA meeting in her native Trinidad.