Hundreds of young budding footballers took part in the Second Annual Maylee Attin-Johnson 3v3 Football Tournament which was supported by the bmobile Foundation recently at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
Camille Campbell, TSTT ’s VP Marketing embraced the initiative, saying it was synonymous with the Foundation’s drive to support youth development.
Apart from sports, the Foundation also spreads its wings to provide assistance in the areas of education, culture and health.
Campbell noted that, “We have been a part of this event since its inception. We believe that it is critical to provide opportunities to our young people at a very early stage. This will aid in their development and it will also help build their self confidence.” The tournament saw action in the Boys Under- 8, U-10, U-12 and U-14 categories while the Girls competed in the U-15 and U-17 divisions. The tournament was played in a round-robin format which meant each team in the group played against each other for a duration of eight minutes, without any break.
Tournament founder Attin-Johnson said her aim was to ensure that young players across Trinidad and Tobago did what they love to do best, which is play football, saying it was a tremendous joy to have seen the smiles on the faces of the young players.
Apart from having fun, Attin-Johnson said it also enabled the young players to develop in areas of goal scoring, building awareness and working on their technical and tactical aspects of the game.
Attin-Johnson, a former national captain and stand-out player admitted she adopted the initiative from her stint in the United States where she had been at University. “Jinelle James and I saw the tournament and we took a special interest in it as we saw ways in which it can help in local football, particularly in goal scoring,” she said.
Their dream now is to introduce a 3v3 League in TT as well as take a TT team to the Disney Cup in the US soon. “This will be a grand initiative so we have to ensure that it is organised properly first and hopefully we will get the support from corporate companies like TSTT which has been a tremendous help for us.” On the field, Santa Cruz United won the U-8 boys and Eastern United claimed the top spot in the U-10 boys.
The Under-12 and 14 divisions were won by Marabella FCC and Eastern United respectively.
Among the girls, the Waterloo Institute of Soccer claimed the U-15 division and Misfits captured the the U-17s.