National Team Assistant Coach Russell Latapy held his first meeting with coaches and representatives of the T&T Pro League clubs at the Technical Department Offices of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation at Kantac Plaza, Arouca on Wednesday.
Among those attending the meeting which was called by Latapy while away recently with the National Team in Argentina, were San Juan Jabloteh coach Terry Fenwick, W Connection’s Stuart Charles Fevrier, Mau Pau manager Brent Yorke, Tobago United’s Peter Granville, Caledonia AIA’s Jamaal Shabazz, United Petrotrin’s Philbert Jones and Police FC’s Muhammad Isa. Also present was Pro League representative Julia Baptiste.
Latapy described the meeting as one which served its purpose which was to exchange and discuss ideas relating to the development of the League specifically as it related to the National Teams from the junior to the senior level. He emphasized the importance of an ongoing healthy working relationship between the Federation and the League and his willingness to work towards the betterment of the sport in his capacity not only as a Senior Team Assistant Coach but one who will be assisting in the development of the game at the youth level.
“In my role as assistant coach it is important for me to meet with all parties involved in local football and obviously that involves the Professional League and today we held discussions relating to the development of the game locally in relation to our national teams,” Latapy told TTFF Media following the two-hour long meeting.
W Connection coach Fevrier, one of the more successful coaches in the League, appeared satisfied with the fact that there will continued efforts towards ensuring that there is an ongoing relationship between the parties.
“The meeting was very fruitful one. It was the first time we were meeting with Russell and what he really wanted to know was what were the problems facing us as coaches in the League and what he can do to help in terms of improving the quality of play in general,” Fevrier told TTFF Media.
“What we thought as coaches was that at the youth level there must be more serious coaching than there is currently and more quality people should be working with these More coaches opt for the senior teams because the salaries are not impressive at the lower level. This reflects also on the national youth teams as well so we felt to improve this we need better development work at the youth level. There were other areas discussed but the focus on what could be done to develop the league and the locally based players.,” Fevrier told TTFF Media.
Efforts will also be made to ensure that the preparation of the Senior Team is not negatively affected by the schedule of Pro League Matches, particularly for the remainder of the 2010 World Cup Qualifying campaign which continues at home to Honduras on March 28 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium and away to United States on April 1 in Nasvhille.