The development of female football, clinics for under 11 and under 13 players and other developmental programmes are on the cards of the just elected executive of the Georgetown Football Association (GFA).
Rawle Adams, GFA’s Vice President with responsibility for Technical and Tactical Development in an interview with Stabroek Sport said those were just some of the decisions arrived at after the executive held its first executive meeting a few days ago.
Those plans he however said will have be presented to the General Council at which point all its members will have the opportunity to discuss the plans before they are finalised.
“But based on discussions that would have emanated from that meeting we are looking to roll out seven tournaments for the year and that is outside of the other organisers who have their tournaments.”
A calendar of activities he said will be made available within the coming weeks but, “the junior department is where we hope to have a lot of focus.”
Adams said there are plans to partner with a number of sponsors and organizing groups among them Banks DIH, Lens Craft and the team of Marlan Cole and Troy Mendonca.
Cole and Mendonca, both former executives of the GFA, are now directors in the organizing company of Petra which is responsible for the organizing of the Courts Pee Wee and the Milo Under 20 school tournament.
Adams said that the Banks DIH Under-13 sponsored football academy is one of the programmes which they are hoping to bring to fruition this year.
Last year a number of Under 13 players were identified through a competition organized by the GFA and sponsored by Banks DIH to be a part of the academy.
“We also want to focus on female football in Georgetown, we know that Mr. Colin Baker along with others have initiated a female programme which has been running for a year, so we want to create a niche between the GFA and tournament sponsors so that we can have youth development.”
Adams also said that there are plans to conduct clinics for Under 11 and under 13 players.
“But if the calendar does not have space for us to have a female youth programme then we will incorporate the existing ones but have developmental programmes for the Under 11, 13 and 15 which will give birth to female tournaments or develop the existing ones.”
Adams said the executive has discussed the possibility of developing a playing surface which could see the association working with one of the clubs with its own ground.
There are three options he said; GFC, Sunburst Camptown Ground or Tucville Ground, which is home to Fruta Conquerors Club.
“If we could have a facility developed for games and I know that this could a little farfetched but you could never tell with sponsorship we could have an artificial surface developed which would see football being played year round.”
That he said is not yet set in stone, but there is still need for further discussion at the level of the executive.
“What I can also tell you is that over the next two years there are plans to either quarterly or half yearly target developmental works that could be achieved in that time span.”
He reiterated that within the coming weeks a more comprehensive plan will be available.
Asked about collaboration with Digicel on its school football programme, Adams said that with Lavern Fraser-Thomas as Vice President of Administration he is confident the GFA will have a working relationship with the cell phone giant on ways they can collaborate in the future.
Fraser-Thomas is instrumental in coordinating the Digicel School’s championship which sees schools across the country participating.
