– Sears and Granderson going to Miami
FOLLOWING the successful completion of their three game Goodwill series against Bago Sports Beach Football Club (BSBFC) of Trinidad and Tobago, the Guyana Beach Football Association (GBFA) has outlined their plans for the remainder of this year. Included amongst those plans, is a National Open tournament to be held next month, wherein the GBFA will be inviting teams from across the country, to go to the mining town of Linden and battle for supremacy on July 26 and 27.
“We are looking to have three teams from Georgetown, two each from the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara and one each from Berbice, Bartica and West Demerara, to come and do battle with six teams from Linden,” said GBFA Chief Coordinator Rollins Tappin.
According to Tappin, the possibility of having more teams compete in the tournament depends on the response received from Corporate Guyana, as the GBFA will be soliciting sponsorship from businesses within that sector.
“We are hoping to get the coaches who were involved in the Guyana Football Federation coaching course two years ago, to work with the teams during the national tournament, since they will be better equipped to guide the teams with regards to beach football,” stated Tappin.
He added, “Based on feedbacks which we expect to get at the completion of the Open tournament, we will be looking to strengthen the Red Jaguars, in preparation for a return trip to Trinidad and Tobago, as guests of BSBFC.
Added to that, we are looking at the possibility of hosting a Brazilian College team for a three game Goodwill series as we did against BSBFC sometime in August, with the negotiations for that being close to completion, as we are awaiting confirmation from them at the moment.”
The GBFA is also looking to host another school programme – in addition to the present one that is being contested amongst secondary schools in the mining town- in August, from which the best students will be selected to undergo the fundamentals of beach football, with the aim of making the Red Jaguars lineup in later years.
Meanwhile, BSBFC has chosen Tappin, Keon Sears and Jermaine Granderson to join them in their quest for glory, when they compete in the North American Sand Soccer Championships (NASSC), which will be held from June 8 to 10, 2012 in Virginia Beach, Florida, USA.
BSBFC is the only team from the Caribbean, which has been invited to compete in the championship out of over 900 registered teams and they used the Goodwill series against Guyana’s Red Jaguars , which they won 2-1- as a preparation.
At the end of that series, BSBFC coach Dane Bernard said “We intend to take a few Guyanese players with us, in our bid to strengthen our opportunity of carting off the championship, or even finishing amongst the top teams,” hence Sears and Granderson’s selection which will see the duo will leaving Guyana on Wednesday for Miami, where they will join forces with BSBFC.
Tappin will play the role of Observer for BSBFC, as he is tasked with overlooking the performances of the players, especially Sears and Granderson whom he feels can land lucrative contracts with BSBFC, based on their performances in the NASSC tournament.
“This achievement is a promising one for the GBFA in their effort to spread and develop beach football in Guyana. The other players would definitely be motivated to up their training and perform better so as to have a chance to be selected not just by BSBFC, but other recognised clubs in the Caribbean.”