THIRTY COACHES from the Southern Football Association (SFA) graduated from the first Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) “C” Licence coaching course on Friday, at the Rousillac Community Centre and Recreation Ground.
The week-long course saw ex-national women footballer Tamar Watson and calypsonian Brian London among the participants in the development programme, which was organised by the TTFF, in collaboration with the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB).
Rudolph Thomas, president of the SFA and TTFF vice-president, stated, “We have been looking forward to a coaching course of this level.”
“A lot of coaches have come through the “D” licence (course) and this was the opportunity to move to the next level and we saw it as one of the only ways to develop the football from the coaching aspect,” continued Thomas.
“This would allow the trainers and coaches to further develop themselves and, in turn, pass on better training to the players.
“In the SFA, we (have) been saying to the clubs that very soon we will make it mandatory that all clubs have a licenced coach on the bench. For national progress in football we must have these kind of developments taking place.”
Milton Siboo, ex-SFA general secretary and a current director in the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT), said, “It will be a great boost for the development and organisation of the football. It’s a step in the right direction and the step towards taking us back to the golden days.”
Siboo continued, “The talent is there but they tend to gravitate to the bigger clubs from outside of the southern area. All we have is FC South End from the area or we find players going abroad on scholarship and never coming back.
“I see the TTFF reaching out to the smaller communities and this can help in unearthing some of the talent that you don’t usually see.
We had the golden era with players like Warren Archibald, Leroy De Leon, Bobby Sookram and Steve David who all came from small communities in deep south and went on to become great players in this country. This kind of venture is something that could assist in developing more players like these.”
Kervyl Caliste of Fyzabad, who featured in the week-long programme, noted, “It was a tremendous feeling for me to complete this course and I’m quite eager to go back out in the community and execute what I have learnt here.”
“Football in areas like Fyzabad is growing,” he added. “In modern times when we have competition with television and internet, we have to find ways to make the game interesting for the players.
We as coaches need to be more creative and make the players enjoy the training and love the game and I believe the methods from this course are going to help us achieve that.”