‘Harbour View the university of football in Jamaica’
FORMER Jamaican international and Harbour View FC captain Richard ‘Shortman’ Edwards says winning the 2022 Jamaica Premier League title couldn’t have come at a better time for the ‘Stars of the East’, especially coming a little more than a year after the passing of club legend and Reggae Boyz all-time leading goalscorer Luton Shelton.
“I’m almost sure that has been a part of the speeches from the coach in the locker room on a regular basis. The current head coach (Ludlow Bernard) he is the one that gave Luton Shelton the opportunity to become a footballer. He (Luton) wanted to switch to track and field and ‘Luddy’ was the one that convinced him to stay with the game, and the rest is history,” Edwards said.
The retired midfielder, who was part of the Harbour View team that won the 201213 title, told STAR Sports that Bernard, who became the first coach on local soil to win the Manning Cup and Premier League in the same season, should be part of the national set-up in some way.
“In terms of the youth set-up, yes, he’s one of the best in the island.” he said.
Edwards, who is a three-time winner of the Jamaica Premier League, also heaped praises on his former club labelling the system as an ‘institution within Jamaica,”.
“Like the University of the West Indies where students can leave with their different degrees, Harbour View in Jamaica is the university for football. At the club, it’s about life, etiquette, the whole spectrum of life. At Harbour View, they teach you how to play the game.”
The 39-year-old who now resides in Canada has gone on to form his own football training school known as ‘Touch of Class’.
“It is important for us as former players to stay in the game and share the knowledge. One of the things that I’m doing now and the knowledge that I’m passing on to the younger players I would have learnt from Donald Stewart, who is still part of the Harbour View coaching staff,” Edwards said.