Former national footballer Vurlon Mills seeking to change lives on and off the...
Unfortunately, the referee raised his flag for offside. Petrotrin scored a goal and the match ended 1-nil in their favour. After the game, Petrotrin’s coach told me the goal that was disallowed was actually a perfect one. He invited me to play with their team in Trinidad. I was elated. It was the first time I was approached to become a professional footballer.”
He agreed to go to Trinidad after he completed his studies at Global Technology.
From 2007, he joined Petrotrin and was with the team for three years. During that period, he was called to play for Guyana in the under-23 team. “Again I was one of the youngest player and I had to work extra hard. I was one of the second choice forwards on the team. We had players who were the starting forwards. By the start of the tournament I was a number one forward along with Dwight Peters.”
After that tournament, he returned to Trinidad and continued playing in the Pro League. During a practice game in preparation for a tour to St Vincent and the Grenadines, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee and surgery was recommended. “It was scary. I immediately thought this was the end of my football career. Before surgery I had to strengthen my knee to ensure that the recovery process would be faster. Wayne Lawson, who worked with TT national team, took me through therapy for three months pre surgery.”
Immediately after surgery he underwent therapy for six months.
After recovery, his first game was in the Reserve League, where he played three games before returning to the Pro League.
In 2009, he was called to play for Guyana’s senior team, a dream come through. “I liked the challenge of being around the best players. For the first few games I wasn’t one of the starters. Anyway, I worked hard, had some challenges but made the team. After that I kept going back and forth between Guyana and Trinidad while playing for the senior team.”
In 2010, Petrotrin ended its football programme and Mills played for one season with W Connection FC and then took a transfer to T&TEC (Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission) FC, which had one of the better teams in the Pro League. Again he succumbed to a cartilage injury in the knee that was injured before and was out of commission for three months. This time he did laser surgery on the knee and therapy again with
Lawson.
After T&TEC ended its football programme, Mills played in the Super League for one season, then with Santa Rosa FC for another and finally Caledonia FC for yet another.
In 2015, he returned home to Guyana to play for Slingerz FC. “I still wanted to make a living through football and Slingerz agreed to pay me what I was being paid in Trinidad. We played in the West Demerara Senior League and won it twice. We played in the GFF Elite League which we dominated and which we won back to back.” After Slingerz folded he played again with Western Tigers and finally returned to Conquerors.
He retired in 2020 from international football during the COVID-19 pandemic and played his last tournament with Conquerors in the recent Kashif and Shanghai tournament.
While in Trinidad he coached the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus men’s football team and coached several teams that were part of the Minor League. He also assisted in coaching the Caledonia FC youth team.
“Coaching was something I liked doing even before I went to Trinidad to play football. I always helped to coach Conquerors youth team. I am excited when a youth I worked with excel and is called to represent Guyana.”
On his return to Guyana, he assisted in coaching the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) under-17 team following the demise of its coach, Lashley.
“When the under-17 was making progress competing against some of the bigger and better youth teams like Conquerors, Pele and Santos, I coached the senior team because they had no coach. We started to transform the senior team by transferring the best of the under-17 players to the senior team. With GFC rebuilding, we decided to start the Junior Jaguars youth programme and I worked with Faizal Khan coaching the Junior Jaguars.”
Mills worked with Khan for four years at several places, including Georgetown International Academy. He also coached Chase Academy football team during which time the school won the Digicel tournament twice, the Milo tournament four times and ExxonMobil Under-14 tournament.
Giving back
His love and passion for the sport led him to start his own football programme in early 2019 with children from two to 17 years in different age groups. In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, the programme was placed on
pause. It restarted in late 2020 and has continued to date.
He has six coaches on staff and they work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The final Saturday of the month is games day. “Part of my success as a coach and manager and why we win so many tournaments is because of the coaches and the work they put in.”
“Every day we’re are looking at ways we can improve our programme. With the right resources, our objective is to acquire our own home and create an elite academy for football in the country.
My aim is to see players not only playing for the academy but playing for the country or at an international college or university and securing professional contracts.”
Mills football academy is located at St Stanislaus College Ground. “When I started, I had no ground to use.” Mr Barrow
from GNS ground granted him permission to use the GNS ground.
“Thanks to him I got the programme off the ground. During that time, I was in talks with Saints and with assistance from Robert Fernandes we got permission to use Saints ground. We help to maintain and beautify the ground.
We offer free training and coaching to St. Stanislaus College students interested in playing football and we are open to helping them in preparation for tournaments.”
For the past two years, Mills said that 85 per cent of players at the under-15, under-17 and recently the under-20 players were part of the academy’s programme free of cost. They include Brandon Solomon, Devon Padmore, and Sealon Sue, most of whom he coached at Chase Academy.
In a recent outreach in
Albouystown, the academy hosted over 65 players. The majority were not affiliated to any club. A number of them were identified to join the academy for free. The academy has also helped some parents, either by reducing the fee, to accommodate their child or children. “This is my way of giving back.”
Through the academy, some parents have sponsored some children whose talent were spotted during a tournament the academy hosted, but who could not afford to pay for some aspects of the academy’s programme, with uniform, equipment and transportation to practice sessions. These players recently represented the GFF in an under-13 football tournament which they won.
The academy won its first major tournament, the East Bank FA/Ralph Green Under-11 in its first year in operation in 2019. “We’re now getting started,” Mills said.