Let there be light ... Mitchell promises improvements to Boys’ Town’s Collie Smith home
Leon Mitchell, the new president of the west Kingstonbased Boys’ Town Football Club, said that he is working on improving the infrastructure at the club in order for the team to have better performances in the Red Stripe Premier League.
The Collie Smith Drive outfit has been using the Barbican Football field some seven kilometres away as their home ground since 2015 because they have no water and light at their Trench Town home. This has coincided with the team struggling for survival in the top-flight competition.
STILL WORKING
So far this season, Boys’ Town are rooted at the bottom in the 12-team league’s points table, with only one win so far in 16 games.
“We are still working on some things, trying to fix the pump at the location to bring back water. We have the pump, so we have to plan the installation,” Mitchell told STAR Sports.
“The cost of the pump is expensive. The issue is to get a better facility to train, and then we can win some games and climb up the table. Infrastructure is the key. I told the coach (Andrew Price) that we (executive body) will get the things in place,” he shared.
“The other component that is important to me is the light. I need to try and get the light back as quickly as possible. The light was cut off, so I inherited a debt on the light. I don’t want to reveal the debt, but it was substantial and could not just be paid off immediately. We have been in negotiation with some people at JPS. We are expecting light, certainly, by mid-January, if not before,” Mitchell added.
“One of the problems is that we can’t train in insufficient light. My first effort is to get the field that they train on at a particular level with the water and get the light back so we can train in the evening,” he said.
“Part of the problem is to get the players fully fit. If you are not fit, you can’t play for an hour and 30 minutes,” Mitchell concluded.