This talk of Academies for football is

[Jangle]

ok let me ask it another way. Can you please show me the blueprint? How do you go about changing the football landscape of Jamaica? Consider me a retard so please go slowly. Thanks in advance.

[Muadib]

lol ! woiee !!

reggaeboyzsc.com forevah !

[Bricktop]

Start at the German Football Federation and go from there...yuh waan mi type out the whole development strategy of their youth systems? Yuh mussi mad...

[Paul Marin]

Good post.

...but how do you get here from this ???

I have been advocating for many, many years that:
a) education (football education) in our schools be improved;

b) using the schools for devopment - mini-academies - should be done. ...and I have been using already proven value derived by T&F athletes and other sports as example;

c) it makes sense to maximize on the vast resources - captive talent pool i.e. the kids, physical plants and those available to teach/coach;

d) and it would be silly to not use the coverage provided by schools in allowing for discovery of the kids with highest potential in light of need for all-country coverage to ensure any kid falling within 'best potential grouping' is not missed and replace with kid having mere 'good potential'.

Clearly 'a', 'b' and 'c' above all dovetail into this 'd'.

if the aim is not just to get some kids with good potential into these academies but to get our kids with greatest potential into the academies...then there must be a pathway that allows for finding of all those with greatest potential.

Karl, I will admit that I don't know enough about the T&F mini academies to say whether or not that format is transferable to football. I take you at your word that it is.

In terms of how we get there, where you and I have a disagreement is on the level of importance placed in the schools but I think we first have to agree on their role. Are we in agreement that primary schools can supply players, but they won't develop players? More broadly, how do you see the primary schools participating in a system of player development other than simply providing the boys and the facilities? Do we set up primary school football leagues? Do we hold all-island trials at each school? I am struggling with integrating the schools beyond facilities and access to the talent pool to be honest. If that is all it is, then I can see how we go from there. What I can't see is them playing any form of coaching or player skill development role...other than making sure the children can read and write.

[Paul Marin]

Consider me a retard so please go slowly. Thanks in advance.

Can you please thank me belatedly? I hope I didn't "go slowly" on all those posts all these years trying to get through the concrete ina u ea's for nothing!

[Jangle]

The problem is that we do not have the coaches. In England, we have 2,770 UEFA qualified coaches. Whilst this may sound like quite a large number, Spain has over 24,000 UEFA qualified coaches, and Germany has over 35,000. How can we expect to produce quality footballers if we have fewer coaches and provide less training for the children and teenagers that are supposedly the future of the national team?

We are stressing this issue about building a physical structure before we can start seeing some level of improvement in our football, when many structures are already spread out all over our island. If the academy was built tomorrow, who would fill the walls? Who would we employ as teachers for our youths...Wendell, Geoffery and Carl? We need to raise the level of our coaches and send them into our communities and schools. Who are these Academy kids going to play against as part of their curriculum?

[Paul Marin]

The problem is that we do not have the coaches. In England, we have 2,770 UEFA qualified coaches. Whilst this may sound like quite a large number, Spain has over 24,000 UEFA qualified coaches, and Germany has over 35,000. How can we expect to produce quality footballers if we have fewer coaches and provide less training for the children and teenagers that are supposedly the future of the national team?

We are stressing this issue about building a physical structure before we can start seeing some level of improvement in our football, when many structures are already spread out all over our island. If the academy was built tomorrow, who would fill the walls? Who would we employ as teachers for our youths...Wendell, Geoffery and Carl? We need to raise the level of our coaches and send them into our communities and schools. Who are these Academy kids going to play against as part of their curriculum?

Jangle - to be clear, I am not stressing a physical structure but rather a system that leverages tradition with the best principles of modern day football development. I agreed with Karl that if we have schools providing facilities and the boys as raw material, that's start. But no question, even if we get the boys playing, it is useless without coaching. How many qualified coaches do we have in Jamaica? Even if it is only one, there still needs to be a system which feeds all the best talent to his doorstep.

[Karl]

So Spain/Italy/Germany/France et al pluck 8 year-olds from elementary schools based on talent shown on the football field at said schools?

OK!

Top National teams usually select age-group teams from clubs... These players before national selection are usually already representing the clubs in structured accrediated competions. (No of none that select players from stand alone entities i.e not affiliated with a club).

Talent drawn from: The players are found in schools...playgrounds (pick-up or poorly regulated competitions)...low grade and high grade try-a-ting institutions...and guardians and parents driven. ...in almost 100% of the cases all attend some type school where an introduction to the game occurs (earliest development).

--- The academies: Have scouts attached...and there are also unattached scouts...persons with interests in the game/persons with interest in development of talent...who drive talent to them. ...again, the talent is found 'all ova'/from just about every nook and cranny!

[Bricktop]

Do they remain in the schools after being identified at age 8 years old or are they placed in club/academies?

[Don1]

To blame school football for the state of Jamaica's game is absurd.... absolute foolishness.... an outstanding example of the absence of critical thought.

Jamaica has never attempted a systematic and modern approach to football development...that is the fault of football administrators...not schools. It is the responsibility of schools as far as their sports programs are concerned, to advance the welfare of students and the school...Period.

It is not within school's remit to create national teams or players. The fact that Jamaica's administrators have DEFAULTED to the high school system to do that is a tragic dereliction of responsibility...Period

Those schools like Campion which have zero pedigree or public standing in major sports are free to convert that disability to their supposed "feel good" advantage by making a virtue of the necessity ....we understand that inferiority complex some may have and the desire to raise the profile of the institution to the level others enjoy.

Campion does a good job MAINTAINING the level of a very high performing intake cohort... praise for that achievement is in order... but this has no lesson for football development and very limited application in improving the education of the vast majority of students... who are unfortunately deficient in the very basics compounded by coming from and returning to very challenging home environments

[Assasin]

Our current football school strucutre is not helping because
1) the best players are not playing against each other.

The best teams in the competition only see each other in playoffs. The zones are soft and not much competition. At most a quality team may play 3-6 quality games.

Many of the teams have haven't good coaches and never will.

No good youth should be playing Dcup at age 19. That is a waste of talent.

[Muadib]

Campion up to 5th form level have age group trophies in a wide cross section of sports.. you would be hard pressed to find school to match..

Football, Cricket, Swimming, Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis etc..

The quality of the Campion teaching compliment has been second to none following on the excellent teaching foundation layed by their Jesuits..yuh nevah hear bout Campion Extra Lessons ?

All color uniform roll through the Academy at evening time.. and is not for the ambiance.. :-)

Who are these myster people that decide to default to the school system for football dev.. dem drop from di sky.. ???

lol ! status quo is being preserved.. that is clear as day.

[Don1]

I agree Campion appears to have effective teaching... maintaining the high level of the intake cohort is not necessarily a slam dunk affair...kudos to the school administration for keeping the student's standard high. There is no requirement for the school also to perform at a similarly stellar level in major sports...and no shame that it does not

There is no mystery about who is in charge of Jamaican football...maybe you need a horse's mouth for that...it's the JFF. That organization is historically inept and myopic... that's no mystery.... case in point...the 10 year tragi-comedy surrounding the so-called academy

Blaming schools for failing to do something (1) They were NOT designed for and (2) Not resourced for is..well to put it mildly.... Stupid

If that's your version of critical thought you have lots of work to do

[Karl]

What kind of question is that? Read what you asked and apply it to each and every national player's playing life...

[Muadib]

don't forget di Old Boys mafia network.. dem in di mix tuh..

Conspiracy dem call it..