Guyanese football coaches, Wayne Dover and Kavin Pearce made a victorious start to their coaching stint in Trinidad & Tobago on Thursday with a win in the Digicel Pro League, Reserve Division.
Dover who is coach of the Caledonia AIA Second Team has his sidekick, Pearce as his Assistant. The duo saw their young charges etch a 1-0 victory over defending Reserve Division champs W Connection at the Larry Gomes Stadium.
Featuring prominently in the game was Guyanese Under-20 player Dwayne “Deco” Blake who made the through pass which resulted in the LJ Mitchell first half goal that turned out to be decisive.
Blake, who hails from Bartica, was given a two year contract at Caledonia on the insistence of former Guyana Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz, who saw the skillful midfielder back in 2005 as an Under-16 player when he first came to the country.
Speaking after his team’s victory an emotional Dover stated: “This is a dream start for my career. W Connection is a top club and it was a very hard game for us. The Reserve Division is made up of players from the club’s Under-21 team and the professionals who are not starting in the Professional Team’s first eleven, so it is a very competitive scenario.
“It is an ideal environment for Guyana’s Under-20 players and coach Pearce and myself have asked Shabazz about the possibility of bringing more Guyanese youth players which will help the GFF’s programme.
For instance Dwayne Blake has matured so much in this environment and with the talent we have in Guyana, if our boys get what I am seeing here we will be a force in the future.”
Pearce and Dover work fulltime, six days a week in the mornings with the Professional Team as assistant coaches and in the evenings they are in charge of the Reserve Team.
“We work very hard here, but I get the satisfaction that at the end of the day I have made a decision where I can feed my family in a decent way”, explained Dover.
“We are learning a lot here not just on the field, but things like dress code, dealing with the media, financial management and meeting a lot of people that can help us in our career.”