… 40th Anniversary year
IN his playing days he was baptised with the nickname ‘The Ultimate Warrior’ and was highly regarded and feared in his defensive zone at the domestic and International levels. His exceptional football talents were first recognised during his high school days at Queen’s College, where his Games Master and surely one of Guyana’s all-time great footballers, Stanley Moore, predicted that the-then 13-year-old Charlestown youth would represent Guyana in defence.
Gordon Brathwaite, who went on to captain Queen’s College football team, was quickly spotted by the coach of the new and talented kids on the football scene – Pele Football Club.
Coach Lennox Arthur acquired Brathwaite in 1974 and by the next year he was representing Guyana U-18 and also made his senior debut for Pele FC in the finals of the inaugural Father Niles KO Cup.
By 1976 Brathwaite was firmly establishing himself in the Pele starting line-up and carving a name for himself in local football.
It was during a game against GFC at the Bourda ground that the shaven-headed Brathwaite consistently headed or booted away intended balls for the highly skilful Basil Wynn while he was shaping up to control on his chest.
Brathwaite’s immaculate timing and command with which he executed his successful interceptions caused a well-known football fan ‘Cold Water’ to proclaim loudly from the ‘Ungrateful Stand’ – “Duh is d Ultimate Warrior” and since that baptismal afternoon he has been affectionately called the ‘Ultimate Warrior’.
In 1977 at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden he made his senior national debut against T&T playing at right back, thus fulfilling the earlier prediction of Stanley Moore.
The following year the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ was off to Clemson University in the USA on a Scholarship, like so many other Pele and Guyanese players before him. In his Freshman year he made the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) First Team as well as the Dean’s Academic List, but the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ was missing home and the family bond that was established with his club Pele FC and so after a year he was back in Guyana, this time as a Rastaman.
After three seasons with Pele, he parted company in 1982 to be part of the first all-Rasta football side to be formed in Guyana – Top Ranking FC. After two years the team collapsed and the ‘Ultimate’ went to Western Tigers where he spent a year before calling it a day on the field of play to establish Beacon FC in 1985.
Over the next ten years he was intimately involved with coaching and nurturing most of Guyana’s football talents. His first big success as a coach in senior domestic football was a double-major in 1995 when he led Beacon to the GFL league and the ‘Kashif & Shanghai’ titles.
After severing ties with Beacon FC in 1998, Brathwaite formed Uprising FC in 2002 before leaving to return to Beacon in 2007.
Along the way he has coached several Youth and Senior National teams as well as Georgetown Sub-Association sides with fair success.
The ‘Ultimate Warrior’ is the only coach in Guyana to take the country to the semi-finals of the Premier Caribbean Cup competition which he did in 1991 in Jamaica, losing the 3rd place play-off to St Lucia.
Last year February, ‘Coach Man’, as he is now more popularly called, returned to the National Park, Pele’s training ground, where he honed most of his football skills to take up the Head Coach position. It was not easy at the beginning, but Coach Man is optimistic about the future for Pele FC.
“My Coaching career started in Pele while I was an Under-19 player in 1976 and I have always wanted to give back to Pele at the highest level. At the moment I am married to Pele’s club system and coaching and do not intend to move. Here’s where I started and here’s where I’ll end. It’s a cycle, what goes around must come around.”
“The talent level of Pele has always been traditionally of a high quality and we have always attracted quality footballers, but over the years the level of focus and the discipline have dropped somewhat. I am optimistic, however, that with the promised support of past and present players we can restore Pele to its former glory days.
“This year happens to be our 40th Anniversary and a lot of past Pele players are expected back home for a Reunion in Easter, so I will use that opportunity for them to let the present players know of the club’s rich history and what it means to represent Pele FC.
“In essence, we represent the Greatest Footballers to ever play the game which means it is the greatest honour and it also calls for hard work to play at a particular level”
“I think it is an attitudinal metamorphosis the club has to go through and we are on the complete road as to how we deal with football, and being members of Pele FC. I am seeing the change since I have arrived here. What definitely needs to be done is to upgrade our infrastructure and change quickly the way the club is being administrated and then we can be on a much better footing than we are at present and the club will be where it should be.
“Today, in order to attract sponsorship for the club we must be better organised because no business wants to be associated with anything disorganised.
“The club has a President who is visible and working but he needs to have an executive working with him. He cannot do it alone and it is obvious, at times, this is our shortcoming. We need to organise and streamline our administration better so that the club could function in a more organised way which would be helpful.
“The Club is scheduled to hold elections on the 20th of this month so that we should have in place a working executive and not Micro-management.”
Brathwaite’s vast knowledge and football expertise have just been recognised again as he has taken up a post as football coach with the National Sports Commission (NSC) and has already begun to work with the National U-18 side which will be participating in the Inter-Guianas Games in late March early April.
Last year the Ministry of Sport sent Brathwaite on a Coaches’ Course in Germany where the ‘Dreadlocked’ coach was among numerous others from around the world.
Since being at the helm of Pele he has been able to take them to the final of Kashif and Shanghai, losing to Alpha United and last weekend they captured the Western Tigers’ Super Eight Tournament beating Conquerors in extra-time in the final.
Coach Brathwaite says the present Pele squad is full of talent and in the recent transfer window the club acquired several quality players, “We have gotten some real talented players.
“We have secured the very talented national U-20 captain Colin Nelson from Tigers and his cousin Stellon David from the Army, as well as West Demarara’s Trayon Bobb who starred for the National U-20 recently in Suriname. We have also welcomed back home Solomon Austin and Sheik Kamal who had brief stints with Alpha and the Army respectively.
“In addition we have two outstanding teenage talents in 16-year-old forward Korwin Benjamin and 17-year-old midfielder Daniel Wilson, not to forget national U-20 goal-getter Sheldon Holder. The future for Pele looks bright,” Brathwaite concluded with a broad smile.