The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) held a two-day training course for a total of 47 coaches and referees of the Moruca Sub-District as part of strengthening the capacity of the Region for football development.
The programme, held on February 17-18 in Moruca, was led by Lyndon France, GFF’s Coaches’ Education and Development Officer, and Stanley Lancaster, GFF’s Head of Refereeing Department.
Among the key areas covered by the coaching facilitator were the coaching philosophy and objectives and Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) teaching technique. Ms. Amber Enyart, a Peace Corp and Health Worker based in Moruca, complemented the session by providing a talk on nutrition, alcohol and substance abuse. The referees addressed the Laws of The Game and its application.
Additionally, Lancaster implored the 25 new candidates to look beyond refereeing in Moruca, Georgetown and Guyana and shared his career experiences with them as a form of encouragement.
France, for his part, urged patience on the part of the coaches. He advised that they should develop the love to teach and share knowledge to all as he delivered the technical and tactical aspect of the game to them.
Meanwhile, on February 17, the region witnessed the official start of two nationwide Intra-Association youth tournaments at Moruca – the GFF-Pele Alumni Frank Watson National U-15 Tournament and the GFF-NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour Power National U-17 IntraAssociation Tournament respectively.
It was on the final day of the training programme that participants were able to exercise their skills at these two tournaments.
Among those addressing the gathering at the official launch, following a march pass, was Toshao of Santa Rosa Village, Sherwin Abrams. He said the region has been dreaming of this opportunity and urged the participants to respect the rules of the game.
“History has been made today. In Santa Rosa and Moruca, we have been dreaming of this opportunity. We now have this opportunity to mould it together with you. Most of the times when things like these are launched we often leave it to the club members or a few members to carry the mantle, but we will speak collectively here. We want to see this thing bear fruit, we want to see success. We want at the end of the day to talk good about football. Football has rules, boys and girls, if we want to be successful, if we want to be professional, we must abide by the rules of football. At no point in time, you are bigger than the referee. The referee is the person in charge of the game. I’m appealing to you, be respectful to your fellow players, be respectful to the referee at all times, that is what will carry you through.”
This capacity building initiative is part of the mandate of the GFF’s Executive Committee to integrate Region One as a Regional Member Association of the GFF and follows the establishment of a Steering Committee in December, 2017.
The President of the GFF at that time had said the Steering Committee is considered an ad hoc committee under the GFF’s Constitution, with a six-month life-span and with the ultimate goal of proposing same to the May 2018 Congress: “Our goal is to propose Region One’s membership to the Congress in May 2018 but, of course, that will be based entirely on the work the Steering Committee does to demonstrate to the Executive Committee that they’re worthy of being inducted as members of the Guyana Football Federation.”
