Regarding Developing Youth Football

[Matter]

Yesterday and today I attended 2 of the biggest youth football tournaments in Maryland; the Potomac Memorial and the Columbia Invitational in different parts of Maryland, USA. Although I only visited one site each day, there were literally hundreds of young players and their parents gathered. I'd guess that there were probably 100 club teams of different age groups represented at both tournaments.

Why did each tournament have so much participation? Simple, football lovers organized an event that got parents' buy-in and next thing you know everyone's getting something out of it. Local businesses in the areas where the tournaments were held made money and just to listen to the kids who participated (I eavesdropped a lot), they all were having fun.

Surely, there were brilliant ballers who, no doubt, will excel at the game if they keep playing but the bottom line is that football lovers put this thing together. Jamaica has football lovers who could do the same thing even if they just started in their communities. We don't need to wait for Simoes to do that for us.

[Assasin]

Most of our football lovers would rather support a masters league rather than a youth league.

How many Jamaican team did you see there? How many teams from the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, DC or where there is a lot of Jamaicans, and how many of these youth parents showed up?

We have a big disconnect in many of our communities. We have a lot of work to do. Most of the teams will add a youth or two but have no good youth program. If you consider the fact that Walter Boyd, Nandi, Pele Wilson, The waterhouse strikers etc are still around for NPL teams no matter how inconsistent there game is while youths Kemar Daley playing KASAFA and Denver Orgill would still be in the Portland league.

[Mosiah]

Thanks for this, Matter and Assasin.

Sass, you re so right. Masters League football gets more patrons than our U-21 league. The newspaper coverage isn't the greatest for the masters league, but some very detailed and colourful emails are circulated with the results.

Matter raised a good point about "parents' buy-in". I think a lot more could be done in Jamaica in that regard. At the uptown clubs, like a Real Mona, I do believe the parents are pretty involved, but much of our football is played by ghetto people for whom "buy-in(g)" has become quite a difficulty in recent times. How do you get those parents to support their children and the game? How do you get corporate Jamaica to get behind youth football?

Meanwhile, the JFF makes no distinction between adults and kids for Reggae Boyz matches. A 6 month child will be charged full price for a grandstand ticket, which can be as high as US$40.

Fortunately, GSM is planning to do a lot with academies and for youth football. Because these academies will have a Christian setting, it is hoped that parents will support them in a way not seen in Jamaica before.

Why did each tournament have so much participation? Simple, football lovers organized an event that got parents' buy-in and next thing you know everyone's getting something out of it. Local businesses in the areas where the tournaments were held made money and just to listen to the kids who participated (I eavesdropped a lot), they all were having fun.

Surely, there were brilliant ballers who, no doubt, will excel at the game if they keep playing but the bottom line is that football lovers put this thing together. Jamaica has football lovers who could do the same thing even if they just started in their communities. We don't need to wait for Simoes to do that for us.

[Assasin]

Nuff things have to change. Football must not be sponsored by Dons. Politicians must have a budgeted item and not given to "choosen' teams at the community level.

That is what Lennie Taylor did with the youth program in St.Kitts. The parents were very involved organizing events such as car wash, partys to raise funds etc.

From a early age we have to get the youth involved in the team plan. Make them know that indiscipline is not accepted, they have to help to raise funds and do community work. Normally when parents see this kinda positive it force them to come around. The selling point is the discipline and the fact that their kids are achieving something.

Sometimes the parents who show no interest in sport move to a suburb and see how other parents are involved and take up the mantle. We know many of us have two jobs but we still find time to go to gambling house and go to the game ourselves so many can find time

[Assasin]

Funny we talking bout that

Delinquents! - Absentee parents plague PTAs
published: Monday | May 26, 2008

Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

POSITIVE Parenting

POOR ATTENDANCE continues to plague [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]parent-teachers'[/COLOR][/COLOR] association (PTA) meetings in schools across the island. Some parents do not even bother to visit schools to collect their children's academic reports.
The executive members of the National Parent-Teachers' Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) are not pleased. They describe the attendance as "very poor".
The NPTAJ was not able to provide hard data on attendance levels; however, it estimated that the average attendance across the island was well below 50 per cent.
"The feedback from our members indicates that attendance is approxi-mately 20 per cent of membership/parents at the schools," was the NPTAJ's response to questions from The Gleaner.
Effort necessary
"Parents have a responsibility to become fully engaged and contribute in the best way they can to the school that their children attend," the association said.
"Every parent should make a concerted effort to attend meetings and contribute positively." However, the NPTAJ highlighted that each PTA executive was responsible for ensuring that the meetings started and finished, with a proper agenda which was engaging and which afforded the sharing of important information. The NPTAJ executive also asked that notices of meetings be circulated in a timely manner to allow parents enough time to adjust their schedules.
Yvonne Sterling, acting principal of the Drews Avenue Primary and Infant School, said her school's attendance level fluctuated between 30 and 50 per cent. Close to 550 students attend the school.
Sterling says community violence sometimes prevents some parents from attending the meetings. "Parents would want to come, but they can't," she said.
Fathers attending
The school's general PTA meetings are held twice per term, while grade meetings are held once per term and as the need arises.
The records of PTA groupings show that mothers are more likely to attend meetings, but in recent times, fathers have been showing improved attendance.
Esther Tyson, principal of Ardenne High School in St Andrew, told The Gleaner that roughly 25 per cent of parents usually turned up for the PTA meetings. Ardenne has a student population of close to 2,000.
Tyson explained that the parents of students in the lower school, namely first and second forms, were the ones who usually attended the PTA meetings.
"The higher the students go up, in terms of grade, the lower the attendance," she said, adding that many parents felt they did not need to attend meetings when their children were in high school.

Parents' tool kit
Seven good reasons to join the PTA:
1 The PTA is more about raising children than raising funds, although [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]fund-raising[/COLOR][/COLOR] is an important activity, especially in these lean times. At PTA meetings, you are able to discuss school matters with teachers, school administrators and other parents and participate in making decisions.
2 You need to form a partnership with your child's [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]teachers[/COLOR][/COLOR] and the PTA serves as a sturdy bridge between home and school.
3 At PTA meetings, you get tips on how to monitor the process of your [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]child's [COLOR=orange! important]education[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], support the values being instilled at school, and see that the rules are obeyed.
4 You can [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]network[/COLOR][/COLOR] with other parents, share experiences, exchange helpful information and find ways to pool resources.
5 When you attend PTA meetings on a regular basis, you signal to your children that you take their school and their education seriously, and so should they.
6 Students perform better and are more disciplined when parents take an active interest in their education.
7 By participating in the PTA, you set a good example of community involvement for your child to follow. Get involved with the PTA. If attending the meetings is all you can do, it is worth doing.

[Gamma]

the demograhics are DIFFERENT....jamaica does not have the proliferation of the football mom culture....

an altogether different approach would have to be taken in jamaica.....getting parents to "buy in" would not be as effective because football remains an middleclass to upper middleclass phenomenon in america (maybe canada too) and therein lies the success of these tournaments stateside.

[Mosiah]

True! We need a Jamaica model.