Rusea’s football programme receives major boost
RUSEA’S HIGH School’s football programme received a big boost ahead of the 2019 daCosta Cup season, after the president of Howard University, Dr Wayne A. I. Frederick and sports commentator of ESPN, Shaka Hislop through his foundation, Second Half Foundation, presented them with footballs at the Hilton Hotel in Montego Bay on Wednesday.
Hislop the former West Ham and Trinidad Tobago goalkeeper said that despite Rusea’s success at the schoolboy level in Jamaica, this initiative means more than winning daCosta Cup titles. He outlined that his foundation is really passionate about the initiative and believes it will go a far way to impacting other aspects of the young players’ lives more than football.
“I’ll be honest with you, our focus in doing this and being involved with and being involved with communities as we are now is less about
winning titles. It’s more about giving kids opportunities to play the game, develop their own skills and maybe recognise some of their own dreams. Now if that translates to more daCosta Cup titles for any school or team we are involved with, then that’s icing on the cake, but right now it’s about fitting them out with needed tools of the game,” Hislop said.
FOOTBALL’S IMPACT
“The game has given me a lot over the years in a number of different capacities not just the ability to recognise my boyhood dreams of playing professionally or even more so represent Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup level. It has provided me with some needed social skills and equipped me with some of my strongest friendships over the years. That’s just some of the things we believe this sport can give, which is why we are only too happy to help how and where we can,” Hislop added.
Frederick, who has been involved with numerous community service projects in Jamaica over the years, is excited about the partnership with Second Half Foundation and is looking forward to helping more schools and communities in the Caribbean.
The Trinidadian told The Gleaner that this initiative came into being through Isiaa and her mother Janet Madden, retired senator and director of Madden funeral home who does a lot of community service in Jamaica.
“Isiaa Madden and her mom do a lot of community service here and they have in the past tried to plug me into a lot of there projects, whether it’s with the cancer wing at the Cornwall Regional Hospital or different high schools. So they reached out to me about trying to get us to support one of the high schools with some equipment, ball and gear. Shaka has a foundation that he has started where he is trying to get gear and stuff to schools and teams in the Caribbean. I told her this time we would bring some balls down and then, later on, will bring some other forms of equipment,” Frederick said.