Yesterday I had the Chance of watching

[Jawge]

Okay do this: Pick the best of Dcup and manning cup, then tour Brasil (playing the youth teams of sao Paulo, santos Corinthians et al) and if they win one game I would give the credit of winning all. You know what don't go that far (next I hear the excuse of jet lag and yada yada)

Play against the youth academies in the US. These results would tell you what I'm talking about. I already know the crutch you guys would fall back on: "ah true wi nuh haff no money, cause yu cyaan see dat we haff di talent". The sad part is that the US is not even putting technical players in these academies; which shows that the have deeper understanding of the game than us.

Continue with the Dcup/manning cup hoping that high school football will beat institutions designed for football and football alone.

[Karl]

Funny thing is you are speaking of one of the things we should be doing continuously!

Put our best - at all levels e.g. the age-group national aggregations and other national teams - in frequent competition against quality opposition.

If the best of Manning and DaCosta were pooled and continued to play matches throughout each year...then?

[Peter R]

Jawge, I would hate to see sports rivalry disappear from our education programme. Are we to do away with ALL sports in High Schools then and if you want to swim join the swim academy, play cricket, the cricket academy etc etc?

The HS competitive season is not long...why can't the same players then join or become part of what you are advocating, for the rest of the year?

Do High Schools in America play competitive football, real one and the fake one? basketball? any sport?

[Me]

Players who are very talented should be in a program built for Football and the other things fall around it. Not an academic program that other things fit in to.

Even the US recognized that the model for their other sports does not work.

[Jawge]

This is the concept I'm trying to explain to Peter and karl.

[Peter R]

I understand it and I disagree with it. Why would you pigeon hole a youth and put him in a football academy where academics is second place and there is ABSOLUTELY no guarantee that he will make it as a pro?

[Jawge]

Good question. Now let me ask you this? Do all the boys that attend high school in Ja finish on the upper end of the academic scale then move on to be professionals in the field of choice? Thanks.

[Peter R]

Jawge, I do not have stats to back up my answer but I would say yes. I would also say by example I saw that there were about 2,700 doctorspractising in Jamaica (2006). There are over 800,000 practising in America. In all of the pro sports in America I would guesstimate (based on 6,000 NFL players) that there are no more than 30,000 pro athletes...
point being it is much harder to make it (statistically) as a footballer than a doctor.

The big questions for me are: As a society, what are we trying to produce? productive all-rounded citizens or professional athletes? and why should the education system relinquish the important factor of sports in the overall education plan to benefit any one single sport?