By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
Digicel St. Kitts-Nevis presented the Head Coach of Digicel Kick Start Clinic, John Barnes, to the Federation at a press conference at the Marriott Resort on Monday.
Mr. Barnes, a former England and Liverpool football star, conducted two days of football clinics with under 20 football players here in St. Kitts. The clinic days were January 22 and 23, which culminated in a friendly match on January 24.
Dave Connor of the Department of Sports welcomed Mr. Barnes to St. Kitts and spoke of the Government’s commitment to sports and youth development.
“We at the Department of Sports focus on youth development. We run an intensive programme within our schools. We continue to encourage all of our national associations to do likewise. It is, therefore, why we are pleased to support the Digicel Kick Start Clinics,” said Mr. Connor.
Mr. Connor also discussed the Government’s commitment to provide facilities for training and competition. He mentioned the newly renovated National Stadium at Warner Park, which was the venue for the clinics. He also pointed out the planting of grass for the Urban Development Corporation Garden Hot Spurs field and the upgrading of the St. Pauls field.
Peter Jenkins, President of the St. Kitts Football Association, expressed confidence that all six of the players to be chosen for further training at the Sunderland AFC Youth Academy in the UK will come from St. Kitts rather than the other seven countries in the programme.
“I believe this Kick Start Clinic will be the crowning moment for St. Kitts and Nevis,” he said.
Mr. Jenkins confidence comes from the work his Association has done to develop young football players over the last three years. He said it began with the appointment of a new technical director who decided to begin with youth development.
“We needed to retool; we had to go back and reshape the youngsters. We had to go back and instil in the youngsters the correct attitude, new skills, etc,” Mr. Jenkins said.
Mr. Jenkins further stated that the new approach started with an under 17 league, then an under 15, followed by an under 20 league.
The performance of the under 20 in the CONCACAF finals last year was the “furthest any team from St. Kitts has gotten in a qualifying competition,” he said.
“Over the past three years we have developed a new crop of players and this is the group John Barnes will be looking at over the next two days. That is I say it is a crowning moment because he will have the opportunity to see what we have developed,” Mr. Jenkins said.
Mr. Barnes expressed hope that the clinics are part of an ongoing process within the development of football in the Caribbean. He said that Digicel “would want this to be an ongoing process of support for football in the Caribbean in years to come.” He added that “the focus on the Caribbean from Europe” will result in opportunities for young players even if they are unsuccessful in this selection.
Mr. Barnes emphasised that the character of the players would determine their future success. He stressed the limited number of persons to be selected – eight persons – but urged that the young players do not become disheartened.
“The character of the person is really determined when things don’t go right for you, in the face of adversity. So, therefore if you have not been chosen, what do you do, how do you react? Do you give up or do you say it may not have happened now but it could happen next year or it could happen anytime,” he said.
St. Kitts is the fourth of the eight countries Mr. Barnes will have visited for the Digicel Kick Start Clinics. He has done similar clinics in Guyana, Haiti and Barbados before arriving in St. Kitts last Sunday. Mr. Barnes will continue with clinics in Antigua, Surinam, Trinidad and Jamaica. Only six players will be chosen for training with the Sunderland AFC Youth Academy, which is in partnership with Digicel for this programme.
A total of four days will be spent in each of the countries. The first day is a visit to the site followed by clinics on the second and third day. The final day is a friendly match between a team of the 20 young players who participated in the clinic and a local football club. The Digicel Superstars will be the team pitted against the under 20 team coached by Mr. Barnes.
