Challenge out on Football coaches

Attend the course, get the gear, handouts, time off from your job, receive your certificate in a glowing ceremony, promise to do so much, then go into permanent hiding. That scenario may be a thing of the past when it comes to football courses here.{{more}}

That change from what obtained in the past should become a reality if the Executive of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation do what is expected of them in relation to the twenty-two recently certified coaches.

A ten-day Olympic Solidarity Football Course was completed here recently at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, and facilitator Alvin Corneal said that the onus was now on the local football authorities to implement a system so that the coaches would continue the process.

And, Corneal has devised a means to that end.

“FIFA has a system in place, and the Federation must put things in place so that these guys can be challenged to go one better”, Corneal said.

“They must not remain here, but go on to Futuro I and Futuro II”, he added.

“I have challenged the coaches to go back into their communities and their villages, and get about twenty Under-16 players, run a programme and from that form teams”, Corneal said.

“If this is done, I will come back in a year’s time, organise a competition among the various teams, so I can assess their work”, the FIFA Instructor promised.

Corneal, a Trinidadian, said that he would seek in his homeland sponsorship for the competition by way of trophies and medals.

Corneal commended the participants for their hard work.

“They have been diligent. They have done well. I have learnt a lot from them”, he revealed.

“They are open minded. They haven’t formed opinions about coaching as yet, as they were starting from the beginning, and that was good for me”, Corneal admitted.

“The biggest problem for me, though, was their communication skills; to get them to find the easiest way to get what they want to say”, Corneal recognised.

He saw this initiation to football coaching as a much needed exercise to kick start the most crucial part of any form of coaching, that is, working in youth development.

Corneal reiterated that this is one area that he has noticed over the years that has been lacking in St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Football.

“I heard that the Federation will be paying the coaches a stipend. That will be good as a motivator”, the former Trinidad and Tobago international footballer opined.

Corneal’s stint here was a forerunner to the soon to be launched Youth Development Programme which will see an island-wide effort being made to get Football coaching going in the schools and the various communities on a continuous basis.

Reports from the office of the SVGFF reveal that the equipment for the programme has arrived and all is set to get it off and running.

This programme, though, will dovetail already established efforts carried on by Ian Sardine, Keith Ollivierre, among others. (RT)