Gurley wants structured nursery for local football

Head coach at the Liverpool Football Academy Roger Gurley wants to see a “structured nursery” for football in St Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

Gurley made his call while addressing the closing ceremony of the South and Central Leeward Primary School Football Competition Friday at the Buccament Bay Resort Astroturf field.

In further expounding his call, Gurley told SEARCHLIGHT: “It is good for the youths to have fun, but it is important for them to do so in an organized manner… not just anyone taking up some balls and some kids and say they have a programme.

“It should be structured, where you do some technical and tactical work … You should then have fun games, where you would see the tactics and technical things you would have taught come out,” Gurley proffered.

In commenting on some of the national programmes, such as the various academies and grassroots programmes, Gurley advised that the Ministry of Sports must play a critical and supporting role.

“The ministry is in position where they can streamline through the school system and have either the Football Federation helping them, where you have specially paid coaches going to the school and teaching football in an organized way, before it gets out into the communities where it is just harum-scarum,” Gurley emphasized.

Gurley said he thinks that this structured programme would lead to the revival of an island wide primary schools football competition.

The South and Central Leeward competition is paving the way, which he hopes will be copied, with the rest of the island catching on, he further said.

LOWMANS LEEWARD TRIUMPH

The 2012 competition, which was the second edition, involved seven schools, and was won by the Lowman’s Leeward Anglican School, which accumulated 16 points from 6 matches.

Second was the Layou Government and third was the Clare Valley Government.

The champion team also got the award for the team scoring the most goals in the competition — 21.

The Clare Valley Government won the Soccerama competition played last Friday, with the Barrouallie Government adjudged the most disciplined team.

The top goal scorer was the Lowmans Leeward’s Azor Baptiste who netted 10 goals.

Sixteen players were named for specialized training with the academy during the August vacation of 2013.

The other participating schools were Buccament Bay Secondary, Questelles Government and the Dubois Government. (RT)