Over 60 youths from in and around the Corriverton town area on Saturday had their hopes restored in the football fraternity as they participated in the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Grassroots festival which was hosted in the Berbice Association at Scottsburg Community ground.
All participants pose for a group photo with GFF Technical Director, Ian Greenwood, coaches and parents at the Scottsburg Ground on SaturdayParticipants broke up into smaller groups to work on the various aspects of the beautiful game
“We want to develop your skills in the game of football so that we can select you in the next 10 to 15 years from now to be in the national team of Guyana.” Those were the words of the newly appointed Technical Director Ian Greenwood that is spearheading the grassroots festival.
Under the beaming sunlight, children within the age range of 3 -14 years old participated in a number of skilled activities and “showed-off” their best skills which impressed a number of the coaches who were present.
Berbice Football Association President Keith Ojeer welcomed the initiative in the town whiles expressing his elation for the exposure given to the children.
Despite a poor turnout of parents at the festival, the scores of children were not dismayed but instead participated energetically in all of the activities that were well planned. Some of the activities included fundamental warm-ups, dribbling techniques, King of the ring, passing techniques, head tennis and football ‘tag’.
One of the lads who participated in the day’s activity stated that the Grassroots festival has definitely motivated him to keep playing the sport. “I enjoy the Grassroots festival very much today and it makes me want to play the game more and I enjoy how we were thought dribbling techniques”.
The lad continued that he now feels comfortable playing the sport since he is more knowledge of the game.
Another 11 year old who was eager to speak to this publication made it clear that the Grassroots festival was the best experienced he had in a very long time.
“I enjoyed everything today! I had a good time and I got to learn new skills. I just had a good time and I enjoyed how the goals were set up because we do not have all of those things when we are playing by ourselves. Plus [in addition], we only get to play football for an hour without having any fun and today we had the most fun.”
Meanwhile, at the end of the activities the children were awarded certificates for their outstanding performances by Greenwood.
The Grassroots festival was launched only a few weeks ago with the aim of revitalizing the football sport in a younger age group in the country’s nine football associations.
Greenwood had initially explained at the launch that “the idea of the festival is to design a brand new programme for kids 5 to 12 years old since what we want is to get new boys and girls players into federation’s system.”
The long term of goal of the project is to create leagues at the under-13, under-15, and under-19 levels for boys and under-15 for girls to run nationwide.
The Grassroots Festival opened at the Buxton Community Centre ground in the East Coast Demerara Association on November 19 then rolled on to the East Bank Demerara and Essequibo Associations last weekend before this weekend’s triple play at Leonora (West Demerara Association), Wisburg ground (Upper Demerara Association) and Scottsburg ground.
This weekend the Georgetown and Bartica Associations will host their festivals before Rupununi Football Association will have the last stanza on December 17.
