The ExxonMobil Under-14 Boys and Girls Schools Football tournament is moving closer to kick-off, with participating schools receiving their team shirts and teachers attending a key briefing.
Ahead of the hotly-anticipated group stage, coaches and teachers gathered at the National Library’s boardroom for a perusal of the competition plans.
The event doubled as a hand-over ceremony with ExxonMobil Guyana’s Community Relations Advisor, Ryan Hoppie, presenting the teams with their official kits.
Hoppie emphasised ExxonMobil’s commitment to community development projects and highlighted the crucial role of educators in the tournament’s success.
“We want to ensure we underscore the importance of both teachers and coaches,” he stated. “They are invaluable to the development of the sport and these young players.”
Reminding the teachers of their responsibility in shaping future footballers, Hoppie added, “You are moulding them and shaping them to make a bright future.”
Petra Organisation co-director Troy Mendonca echoed these sentiments, acknowledging the vital role of school staff.
“Our programmes rely heavily on teachers and coaches,” he said. “We’ve listened to your feedback and decided to bring you together as a unit to add further value to the programme.”
Mendonca stressed the importance of collaborating with participating schools.
“This is a schools’ tournament, after all,” he explained, “so we need to work closely with the teachers and coaches who have teams involved.”
The tournament format will see a round-robin group stage followed by a knockout round for the top eight teams in each division. Details of the group stage fixtures are expected to be released soon.
There will be no further eliminations after the ‘top eight’ stage.
Winning schools will receive grants ranging from G$400,000 for the champions to G$75,000 for fourth place.
Individual accolades will also be awarded, with the Most Valuable Players (MVP) in both the boys’ and girls’ categories receiving school supplies for a year, courtesy of Petra.
Bartica Secondary School (boys) and Waramuri Secondary School (girls) will aim to defend their titles when the competition kicks off on May 25.
