THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) held a two-day training course for a total of 47 coaches and referees of the Moruca Sub-District as part of strengthening the capacity of the Region for football development.

The programme, held from February 17 to 18 in Moruca, was led by Lyndon France, GFF Coaches’ Education and Development Officer and Stanley Lancaster, GFF’s Head of the Refereeing Department.

Among the key areas covered by the facilitator were the Coaching Philosophy and Objectives and Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) teaching technique.
Amber Enyart, a Peace Corps and Health Worker based in Moruca, complemented the session by providing a talk on nutrition, alcohol and substance abuse. The referees addressed the Laws of the Game and its application.
Additionally, Lancaster implored the 25 new candidates to look beyond refereeing in Moruca, Georgetown and Guyana. He shared his career experiences with them as a form of encouragement.

France urged coaches to be patient. He advised that they should develop the love to teach and share knowledge to all, as he delivered the technical and tactical aspects of the game to them.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, February 17, the Region witnessed the official start of two nationwide Intra-Association youth tournaments at Moruca – the GFF-Pele Alumni Frank Watson National U-15 tournament and the GFF-NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour Power National U-17 Intra-Association Tournament respectively.

It was on the final day of the training programme that participants were able to exercise their skills at these two tournaments.
Among those addressing the gathering at the official launch, following a march past, was Toshao of Santa Rosa Village, Sherwin Abrams, who stated that the region has been dreaming of this opportunity and urged the participants to respect the rules of the game.
This capacity-building initiative is part of the mandate of the GFF executive committee to integrate Region One as a Regional Member Association of the GFF and follows the establishment of a steering committee in December, 2017.

The president of the GFF at that time had said the steering committee is considered an ad hoc committee under the GFF Constitution, with a six-month lifespan and with the ultimate goal of proposing same to the May 2018 Congress.

“Our goal is to propose Region One’s membership to Congress in May 2018 but, of course, that will be based entirely on the work the steering committee does to demonstrate to the Executive Committee that they’re worthy of being inducted as members of the Guyana Football Federation,” said Forde.