Berbice football has lost a stalwart with the recent passing of former national footballer Neil `Grizzly’ Humphrey.
According to reports reaching this newspaper Humphrey, who is from a multi-talented sports family, died in his sleep on Sunday.
“We the executives and members of the Berbice Football Association and our families pray for the Lord God Almighty to grant his soul eternal rest,” a release from the Berbice Football Association stated.
Humphrey recently celebrated his 65th birth anniversary.
As a player Humphrey’s two-footed skills along with his pace and natural power, accentuated by his girth, allowed him to take on all comers when negotiating the midfield. This helped to earn him his pseudonym, “Grizzly”, the name synonymous specifically to his football prowess but which stuck to him throughout the years.
Like the Alphonsos, the Jones’, the Inniss’ and later the Fordes, Humphrey was born into a football family that passed down through several generations.
His elder brother Keith and younger brother Vinson were bot national footballers while Owen represented Berbice.
Vinson had the added distinction of being the holder of the national javelin record at one point.
His sister, Carol, was also a national lawn tennis player.
Michael King and Granton Inniss remember Humphrey as one of the main contributors in a national schools championship Berbice team that dethroned Georgetown in the early 1970s.
In Inter-School football, Humphrey and Roger Alphonso helped Vryman’s Erven defeat Mission Chappel School led by Martin `Bab-a-Goal’ Inniss, Joseph Simon of the BFA recalled.
According to Simon, Mission Chapel was in full control after drawing first blood until the second half when the diminutive but robust Humphrey and the even more diminutive Roger Alphonso, came off the bench and in combination to destroy our midfield to help Vryman’s Erven win the match.
Humphrey played for the Cougars Football Club, a club which was dominated by Alphonsos and Humphreys.
He was also a member of the national football squad of that 70s era, joining an illustrious group which included fellow Berbicians, Oral Samuels, `Skip’ Price, Roger Alphonso and others.
He also played a very solid role in Berbice’s dismantling of Mongo Topoo by two 2 goals to nil, during an early 80s tour of Suriname, recalled Simon.
He later helped form the Hearts of Oak Football Club.
Although the new club was geared to organise veteran football, Humphrey undertook coaching sessions for youths in schools of both genders. He also assisted in organizing annual primary and secondary schools football tournaments.
Those tourneys were later used as Memorial tournaments in memory of his late father, Hilbert “Beef” Humphrey, who was still actively playing Inter-Ward football way past his 60’s, prior to his passing, said Simon.
Humphrey, through the Hearts of Oak Football Club, also held an annual “Teach ‘em Young” football camp, for just about two decades.
Humphrey was also very passionate about females in the sport and their participation from the broader society included those that were incarcerated in the women’s prison. Through his advocacy the female inmates were able to receive football training as part of their recreational schedules, said Simon.
He also had the distinction of being named head coach to the 2012 inaugural Ministry of Youth & Sports Guyana girls’ team, basically a New Amsterdam selection that toured Suriname in a meeting of the Guianas tournament.
Humphrey was much more than just football development coach among the youths. He was also very much involved in community development and character rehabilitation, which clearly emanated from his overall intersection with people of all disciplines within the society/community, especially the prison system and the All Saints Presbyterian Church both for which he performed various invaluable community services said Simon.
As an educator/instructor he worked along with the schools’ sports departments to bring CXC students up to speed with their physical education curriculum and even further assisted the examiners with the practical and theoretical exams.
Neil “Grizzly” Humphrey aka “Piggy” Was truly a Berbice football legend in his own right to his many fans across Guyana and within the diaspora.
May his soul rest in peace.
