Digicel Schools’ Football is catalyst for developing future national players

By Akeem Greene

The Digicel Schools’ Football Championship, held under the theme “Unite, Develop, Excel” since its inception in 2011, has unearthed several young and talented footballers.

Unfortunately, there has not been the mechanism in place to help develop this bountiful crop of raw talent which has been on show.

In addressing this issue, the telecommunications giant has partnered with the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in an effort to foster development of future national players. Action in this partnership, which is now in its seventh year, kicks off on June 12.

This was disclosed on Thursday by Digicel’s head of Customer Care, Sherwin Osborne, in an exclusive interview with Guyana Times Sport.

“This year, it is imperative for us to take that next step in terms of developing students and players into that realm where there is an easier transition into the national team and the general professional atmosphere,” Osborne detailed.

He added, “We are working very closely with the GFF and technical directors to help bridge that gap we always talk about in terms of: ‘After the school league, what do they do?’ So this year we (are) looking in terms of developing the players professionally”.

Over the years, they have been three champions of the tournament: Government Technical Institute (2011); Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School (2012-2015); and Chase’s Academic Foundation (2016). There has been the emergence of some star-quality players in the likes of Jeremy Garrett, Kelsey Benjamin, Ryan Hackett, Omar Brewley, Shaquille Campbell and Keshawn Dey, to name a few.

An admirable development has been the championship venturing into interior locations to provide a platform for interior location players to showcase their talents.

“That was our ultimate goal from day one. We didn’t want to do a tournament that just dealt with the (coastal communities); we wanted to go all across Guyana. And it is coming to fruition now in terms of (players from interior locations) getting…out to play for the national team; and every year we have ‘interior teams’ making the quarter-finals and semi-finals,” he explained.

Osborne disclosed that there will, this year, be very strict adherence to schools registering players within the under-18 age group. Accordingly, school administrators are urged to bring in the necessary documentation that would verify the ages of the players they would have represent their school in the tournament.

The champion school usually collects $1 million to fund a project of its choice, while the second, third and fourth-placed finishers receive $700,000, 400,000 and $350,000 respectively. Regional champions are guaranteed $100,000 each.

The Digicel representative is asking schools to be timely in submitting their plans, since this year Digicel “will be setting a deadline, and schools that do not adhere would have to forfeit their prizes”.

This year’s tournament is expected to feature more than 160 schools, and will run until July 31, when the finals will be played at the Leonora Stadium.