Rural football needs urgent attention
For a variety of reasons, including a genuine lack of interest, I have not been watching a lot of local football, to include the ISSA/FLOW schoolboy competitions and the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL). Having been schooled on good football over the years, it is really hard to watch the mediocrity that is now being passed of as good football.
I have been in and around national football since the 1970s, and one of the defining features of our football up until the late 1990s was that we have always had stars with the capacity to pull fans to games in droves. I just need to close my eyes briefly to get a refreshing mental replay of the heroics of the likes of Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, Lenworth ‘Teacher’ Hyde, and Walter ‘Blacka’ Boyd.
In those days, when I went to a game, unless the team was leading but coming under pressure, I never wanted the games to end because the entertainment was so rich. Nowadays, when I go to a game, it is usually so distracting that I have found myself walking out of games as early as the half-time break because the games are more irritating than entertaining.
From a physical perspective, I do not believe the current generation of footballers are any worse off than the players of former years. What I think has changed dramatically is the level of motivation and interest, especially in places like western Jamaica, which was once a rich reservoir for exceptionally gifted players.
I remember back in the 1980s, watching players like Alton ‘Noah’ Sterling and Allan ‘Ply’ Latty, both of Seba United fame, in training. Any morning you went to Montego Bay’s Dump Up Beach, you would see them running on the sand, and in the afternoon, once it was not a match day, they would be back there training in the afternoon.
Nowadays, you will rarely see a youngster running anywhere in the western city, and based on my interaction with coaches, ducking training at both the schoolboy and National Premier League level has been the favourite pastime of many players. As a consequence, many are so much out of condition that they are simply incapable of performing at a high level for a fun 90 minutes.
While schoolboy football continues to attract fairly decent fan support here in western Jamaica, it is my view that it is not so because the quality of the football is entertaining, but more so from a parochial perspective. This is primarily driven by the fact that past students are usually anxious to retain ties with their old schools.
LOWER CALIBRE COACHES
Some people may argue that the coaches of today are not of the same calibre as the likes of a Winston Chung Fah, Oliver Clue, Steve Bucknor, and Emerson ‘Diggy’ Henry. These coaches all had the ability to convert regular schoolboy players into national material in two or three seasons.
The inadequacies of rural football are once again being exposed by the urban schools in the first round of the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup. I believe the presidents of the various rural parish associations need to wake up to the reality that the sport needs to be put back on sound ground or its demise is inevitable.
Insofar as western Jamaica is concerned, I would like to see a football summit where all the various stakeholders, to include parish presidents, school administrators, club owners, coaches, and sponsors, sit down and analyse the product and collectively develop a rescue plan to reposition the game and make it viable once again.
Just as we are able to produce global stars in athletes through the input of coaches who are able to create the right condition for athletes to realise their fullest potential, I believe that if the same can be done for football, including properly inspiring and motivating the players, we could produce stars capable of shining on the global stage.