Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Executive director and founder of Global Soccer Ministries, Paul Banta (left), during a training session at Priory on Friday.

Keisha Hill, Staff Reporter

"MY PHILOSOPHY is that if we do not develop coaches with the right attitude we cannot develop good players," says Baris Johnson, director of coaching for Global Soccer Ministries (GSM) Jamaica.

Johnson was speaking in an interview with The Gleaner following day two of the GSM International Community Coaching Education Course which began on Thursday and culminates today at the Mayfair Hotel, Kingston.

"We need to develop good coaches who will develop good players so we do not have to be struggling on the world stage," Johnson said.

"I think we put too much emphasis on our senior programme and not enough on our youth programmes. As a result we are ranked 105 in the world," he said.

He further stated that more needs to be done in terms of the development of the sport. He said that if Spanish Premier League clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid were contemplating building a football training academy in Jamaica, then it speaks of the quality of talent here.

"If we can get all of these coaches to go into the inner city and challenge themselves with a couple of these players it will make a difference to the whole development of the sport," he said.

Rave reviews

The course, which is being directed by international coaching educator and the executive director and founder of GSM, Paul Banta, has received rave reviews from participants.

More than 70 people signed up for the four-day course including coaches from the National Premier League, the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), the Manning Cup, Whole Life Ministries and other areas.

Lectures

The course includes lectures on how to develop coaches as leaders, football tactics relevant to 11 vs. 11, football fitness, tactics in goalkeeping fitness, football nutrition and the role of other coaching staff.

According to Arden Rivers, a former Cayman Islands national football player, he became involved in the seminar as he has intentions of moving from a player to a coach and the seminar was making it a lot easier for him.

"The knowledge that we receive here we will take back to the Cayman Islands and try to improve our youth programme," Rivers said.

"The contents of the programme have been very intense but we are enjoying it. Not only the coaching but the hospitality as well," he said.

His teammate Lovane Joven, an assistant coach at the Cayman Islands Academy, said he was participating in the course to make him the best coach that he can be to help with the growth of football in the Cayman Islands.

"Right now football in the Cayman Islands is on a low. I am here to grasp all I can. When coach Carl Brown invited me to come with him to Jamaica to participate in the programme I jumped right ahead," Joven said.

At the end of the sessions, each participant will receive a Community Level 2 Certificate-GSM International Coaching. The awards and presentation ceremony is this evening at the Mayfair Hotel starting at 8:30 p.m.