Football D License coaching course launched

By Morissa Lindsay

A total of 27 participants were advised to embrace coaching and how it would make them successful when the Barbados Football Association in collaboration with the National Sports Council and the Ministry of Sports launched a community D License coaching course.

The course commenced this morning at the BFA headquarters in Wildey with an opening ceremony attended by the Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith accompanied by acting assistant director of the NSC, Adrian Donovan and BFA Vice-President Captain Al Walcott.

Minister Griffith told the participants that they needed to use this course to develop themselves and become a total student of the game. The course commenced today and will continue into January 2023 where the participants will be assessed.

“This cannot be just a matter of you going on the field and doing drills, it is more than football. It is about you developing the entire person and you don’t necessarily need to have a psychology degree but you must be able to work with the youngsters and identify what is going on with them. You might see a guy who is on the field looking in a different way to the other guys in terms of the behaviour. You cannot just go and berate the youngster, you need to check to find out what is happening,” Griffith said.

He added, “The responsibility of coaches is more important than what a lot of people would give credit for, you have an opportunity to shape and to change lives based on how you react on the field. One of the things I am going to suggest to you is to become a total student of the game.

Longstanding sports administrator Donovan, who is no stranger to Barbados’ football having served in the past in various capacities, told the aspiring coaches that this is only the beginning in their journey and pointed out that this was an initiative by Minister Griffith.

“This iniative started through our honourable Minister of Sports Charles Griffith who asked us to work with the BFA under his Ministry to ensure that this programme will start before the end of the year. So, we have made that deadline and we hope that after this successful one we have another one in 2023.

“Football is only one small aspect of the community coaching programme, we have done 24 disciplines before, and we have included cricket, basketball, chess, and bodybuilding. We went all over Barbados, every parish in Barbados had community coaches. They were paid by the Ministry, a ten week programme but this one is a little different in that we are working specifically with the national federation which is the BFA, so this one is a special one,” Donovan explained.

Meanwhile BFA Vice-President Captain Walcott noted during his remarks that this course is being facilitated by the coaching education department headed by Concacaf coaches Kent Hall, Fitzgerald Carter and Kenville Layne.

“You are preparing yourselves for the D licence but you should also be aiming to move on to get your C and B licenses and maybe at some point moving from coaching in the communities to coaching a club team and then joining the ranks of the BFA in the coaching department. Good luck and don’t allow the certificate to be something that you just pin up on the wall but use the certificate and the information that you get, take it back to the players and improve yourself and also the players,” Walcott said.

Newly installed national head coach Orlando da Costa was also in attendance and he shared some words of advice with the upcoming coaches. The Portuguese da Costa told the coaches that they must start from the beginning which is what they are doing now with the D license course. He cautioned them that one of the most difficult areas in coaching is the human relationship but pleaded with them to remain focused and not to give up.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb