A game worth organizing: Petra moving to higher heights in 2020

By Jemima Holmes

Were it not for the Petra organization, the playing of football in the school system would be in limbo. While other football member associations are responsible for football at the club level, Petra prides itself on coordinating tournaments for those young players who are now coming through the ranks.

Nevertheless, the body also caters to the playing of football at the senior level.
Over the past year, the Petra organization has coordinated the Courts Pee Wee 11-and-Under Boys, Smalta Pee Wee 11-and-Under Girls’, ExxonMobil Boys and Girls Under-14, Milo Boys Under-18, Guyoil Under-18 League, KFC Goodwill Tournament, Limacol Senior Tournament, Turbo Knockout and Corona Futsal tournaments.
Often, when a tournament is launched, kicked off or concluded, the face many would see is that of Troy Mendonca, a co-director of the Petra organisation. Notwithstanding, when asked about the year 2019, Mendonca showered praise on those who worked behind the scenes to get the job done.
“I just want to set the record straight: While I’m the one doing most of the talking, I want to give credit to our team who is out there, headed by Jackie, Clifford, Desi, Mark, Mr. Daly, and all these other guys who’re out there putting their best foot forward day in day out,” he declared.
“In 2019, we were able to execute our programmes, be it challenging or not, because we believe in what we’re doing; we believe in our contribution towards the development of the sport of football,” Mendonca elaborated.
Things had gone smoothly at the organizational front, but Mendonca had encountered a personal roadblock in the latter part of the year when his business, the Guinness Bar, went up in flames. In addressing this hurdle and others he had encountered along the way, the football stalwart explained that it has motivated him to keep pressing on.
“First of all, I want to give a lot of praise to my dad. I grew up understanding that nothing comes easy in this life, and there’s no straight path. Like I said, we’ve tried to encourage our personnel on the floor to understand that nothing comes easy. So, I think the challenges in (themselves) act as a motivation in bringing out the best from us.”
On the tournament management front, Mendonca cited the lack of sporting facilities in general as a hindrance to the fraternity.
“One of the biggest challenges that football in itself is faced with is the unavailability of facilities. A lot of times I hear people say all kinds of things about reimbursing players and so on, and I always ask the question, ‘Where is the revenue coming from, if we don’t have a proper facility?” he explained.
To this end, the Petra co-director took the opportunity to extend gratitude to those who have played a part in the continuance of their tournaments, even when inclement weather had rendered their regular venue (the Ministry of Education Ground) unusable.
“We are thankful to Minister Nicolette Henry for allowing a partnership that allows us to use the facility in the Ministry of Education ground. That in itself is a boost for our programmes; and secondly, I’d like to thank Mr. Wayne Forde for allowing us to use the GFF training facility,”
Mendonca expressed.
He has offered a solution to the longstanding problem.
“On the real challenge of facilities, it’s something Government, corporate Guyana and all stakeholders need to come together to address, because if we want to see our sport develop; if we want to see our athletes excel, which automatically highlights our country, we have to invest in facilities,” Mendonca explained.
One highlight of Petra’s 2019 tournaments was the ascension of two under-20 teams, Santos FC and Fruta Conquerors, to the final of the Limacol Football Competition. While Mendonca was proud at the level of football displayed by the youngsters, the fact that most of them have moved through the Petra tournaments over the years came as an extra incentive.
“The thing about it is that most of them came through the ranks of our tournaments over the years, starting as early as under-11, and I think the future of Guyanese football lies in them. Even in the KFC tournament, we had those two teams from the interior regions, and we have some good youths out there,” he explained.
Another area that the organization has worked on is the tardy start to most tournaments, especially in the futsal world. When this aspect of football culture was encountered, the Petra organization took several steps to ensure that players would show up and games would begin on time. Probed about the organization’s bold step, Mendonca detailed that the problem has been allowed to grow wild for too long.
“As administrators and organizers, we just allowed that situation to get out of hand, and I think there’s this perception of a particular part of the community doesn’t respond in a certain way; and we proved them wrong. We proved that, in organizing, you set your policies — what you want to achieve, and you act on it.
So, definitely, yes, we want to ensure that whatever timing we set out in our engagement, we stick to it,” he explained.
In their plans for 2020, Mendonca disclosed that the organization is most focused on executing all their current tournaments in the New Year. However, more specifically, he revealed plans to continue working on expanding the KFC Goodwill Tournament.
“Our ambition is to have several of the top Caribbean countries being represented by a school at this tournament. So, it’s like a football festival, we might eventually have to play four games a day or at two different venues. I think that’s where we want to head, and I think that enhances the attitude and the performance level,” he revealed.
Another area of concern for the Petra organization is the playing of senior-level football in Georgetown. To this end, intention to work along with the newly-elected Georgetown Football Club (GFA) body in order to pull off a Georgetown league is one of their priorities.
“We understand the impact that a league would have on the sport, and that’s one of the areas we want to see come up. We want to see the GFA, now they have an elected body, we would like to see a league in place.
“Over the years, we’ve been trying to get that done, and now I think we can sit down with the GFA and (discuss) whatever assistance we can give them to have a league for the senior teams in Georgetown,” he disclosed.