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MAY PEN, Clarendon — With Jamaica's first Little League football competition deemed an overwhelming success, organisers INSPORTS are now thinking of ways to keep the youngsters engaged at an organised level after they have completed basic school.
St Catherine's Search of Life Basic brought the curtains down last Thursday at the Jamalco Sports Club with an emphatic 8-2 aggregate win over Clarendon's Hugh Sherlock Basic in the final of their Champion of Champions tie.
Transport Minister and MP for Central Clarendon Mike Henry (right) presents the Champion of Champions Trophy to Dwayne Liemonus of Search of Life Basic, while Ian Andrews, INSPORTS executive director, looks on. (Photo: Oshane Tobias)
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Transport Minister and MP for Central Clarendon Mike Henry (right) presents the Champion of Champions Trophy to Dwayne Liemonus of Search of Life Basic, while Ian Andrews, INSPORTS executive director, looks on. (Photo: Oshane Tobias)
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Dwayne Liemonus scored all eight goals for Search of Life in the two-way final to finish the competition with a chart-topping 38 goals.
And with the majority of the St Catherine team moving on to Primary School in September, the general feeling is that players — like Liemonus, at age six — who are more advance in their understanding of the game, will have to sit out some two or three years before they can effectively transition into an under-12 team.
This, many believe, would see the competition defeating its purpose of trying to "teach the kids the fundamentals of the game".
But Andrew Hancel, INSPORTS media relation officer, said the immediate plan is to transform the Primary School League into a two-tiered system that will accommodate players coming straight out of the Little League.
"What we're currently discussing is to have a football league in the primary school which will be similar to that in high school where you have the Manning and daCosta Cup and the Under-16," said Hancel.
"It will be two-tier then, where you probably have six to nine playing in one league and then you'll have the under-12.
"And I do believe it is quite possible once we get the support, because what this will do is ensure the continuity of this programme; we don't want to create a lull after they start primary school.
"For example, Dwayne Liemonus is an exceptional talent and we don't want to have this youngster idle until maybe age 10 or 12 before he starts playing football again. We want to keep him active throughout," Hancel told the Observer.
INSPORTS executive director Ian Andrews also spoke of plans to introduce an academy in collaboration with agencies such as Jamaica Foundation for Life Long Learning, which will not only expose the youngsters to the rudiments of the game, but will also foster holistic development.
"Plans are now in the pipeline to see how we can put some of these youngsters, who are being discovered in these competitions that we put on, in a possible academy," Andrews said.
"It will not only be about playing football, but also the holistic approach to life because at this stage they are just enjoying sports and we don't want to get ourselves caught up in putting out machines, so to speak. There are other aspects about life that we have to look at...," said Andrews, who also disclosed that INSPORTS will be launching an all-island primary school football league in the near future.
St Catherine's Search of Life Basic brought the curtains down last Thursday at the Jamalco Sports Club with an emphatic 8-2 aggregate win over Clarendon's Hugh Sherlock Basic in the final of their Champion of Champions tie.
Transport Minister and MP for Central Clarendon Mike Henry (right) presents the Champion of Champions Trophy to Dwayne Liemonus of Search of Life Basic, while Ian Andrews, INSPORTS executive director, looks on. (Photo: Oshane Tobias)
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Transport Minister and MP for Central Clarendon Mike Henry (right) presents the Champion of Champions Trophy to Dwayne Liemonus of Search of Life Basic, while Ian Andrews, INSPORTS executive director, looks on. (Photo: Oshane Tobias) 1/1 And with the majority of the St Catherine team moving on to Primary School in September, the general feeling is that players — like Liemonus, at age six — who are more advance in their understanding of the game, will have to sit out some two or three years before they can effectively transition into an under-12 team.
This, many believe, would see the competition defeating its purpose of trying to "teach the kids the fundamentals of the game".
But Andrew Hancel, INSPORTS media relation officer, said the immediate plan is to transform the Primary School League into a two-tiered system that will accommodate players coming straight out of the Little League.
"What we're currently discussing is to have a football league in the primary school which will be similar to that in high school where you have the Manning and daCosta Cup and the Under-16," said Hancel.
"It will be two-tier then, where you probably have six to nine playing in one league and then you'll have the under-12.
"And I do believe it is quite possible once we get the support, because what this will do is ensure the continuity of this programme; we don't want to create a lull after they start primary school.
"For example, Dwayne Liemonus is an exceptional talent and we don't want to have this youngster idle until maybe age 10 or 12 before he starts playing football again. We want to keep him active throughout," Hancel told the Observer.
INSPORTS executive director Ian Andrews also spoke of plans to introduce an academy in collaboration with agencies such as Jamaica Foundation for Life Long Learning, which will not only expose the youngsters to the rudiments of the game, but will also foster holistic development.
"Plans are now in the pipeline to see how we can put some of these youngsters, who are being discovered in these competitions that we put on, in a possible academy," Andrews said.
"It will not only be about playing football, but also the holistic approach to life because at this stage they are just enjoying sports and we don't want to get ourselves caught up in putting out machines, so to speak. There are other aspects about life that we have to look at...," said Andrews, who also disclosed that INSPORTS will be launching an all-island primary school football league in the near future.
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