Soca Warriors Online (SWO) caught up with W Connection owner David John Williams and had some quick questions for him.
The W Connection man who was busy with his team’s preseason preparation took the time off to chat with us regarding W Connection's upcoming season, among other things.
Below are some of the questions that were asked.
1. The new season is about to kick off, what are you expecting from your team and staff?
DJW: Our expectations are that we continue to play quality football , be consistent . This season we will be focusing on the development of the individual player. We have a very, very young team this year, however do not rule out a trophy or two.
2. Who are some of the talents at W Connection to look forward to this season?
DJW: Shahdon Winchester, if he is still with us at the start of the season, Joevin Jones, Zaine Pierre, if his still with us, of course Hughtun Hector, young Neil Benjamin for our U17 squad, Mikel Williams as well as Jomal Williams who played with the National u17 squad recently and has also joined us. Jerrel Britto has been training with us for the pre-season and is expected to be with us for the new season. I expect a lot of goals from him. I honestly feel that he and Winchester will be a good 1, 2 punch for us up front.
3. To me, W Connection has been one of the most consistent teams in the Pro League. They are also the most successful and they carry about themselves in a very professional manner. What is the secret to your club’s success?
DJW: Flex we do not see our competition as the other teams in the Pro League (no disrespect meant here since we respect all the teams in the league), but see our competition as the teams we see on the television week in week out. We aspire for that level because that is what we have to compete with as far as the fans of football are concerned. They look at the television and take their gauge from there. So really we have no other choice in this regard. We also have to compete with bigger teams with bigger budgets as it relates to the Concacaf Champions League.
4. Over the years your team has been contracting a lot of foreign players. Lately, we are starting to see more locals, are you in the market for any foreign based surprises?
DJW: We are not in the market for any surprise foreign signings. As you can see we have over the last four to five years been almost totally local and bringing a lot of young players from our youth system into the senior team with great success.
5. W Connection has already won the Under 13 title this year and look set on taking the Under 17 and Under 15 titles respectively. Can you brief us on some of the talents, coaching and youth program your club produces?
DJW: We have indeed had another bumper season in the youth divisions. We started a program called Project 13 some 4 years ago to identify young talent to bring to our youth academy. This has worked well for us. I must give credit to our youth academy staff and Leonson Lewis who has been doing a fantastic job with the younger age group.
We still feel that there is room for improvement in our Academy, but "Rome was not built in a day" The other coaches in the youth system in the likes of Shawn Cooper and Dunstan Williams with the U15 and Brian Williams with the U17 continue to excel with their teams.
Our youth team administrator Ms Debbie- Ann Hearwood continue to do a tremendous job. Tribute must also be paid to our Technical Director and Head Coach Mr. Stuart Charles Fevrier who has spent a lot of time with the coaches and youth teams this season because the change in the senior team season, has allowed him to spend more time than usual this time around.
Having won 23 youth titles and being runners up 16 times is no easy feat, since we came into existence in 1999. A lot of clubs will be happy and be over the moon about this but we always feel that the only and real way to measure success at the youth level is by seeing how many of them graduate into our senior team and eventually go on to bigger things in the top leagues in the world.
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