FOLLOWING its historical commissioning ceremony last month, the National Sports Resource Centre (NSRC) received its first set of text books yesterday morning, when the Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC) made their donation of a quantity of books and DVDs to Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony.Witnessing the ceremonial handing-over ceremony were Director of Sport Neil Kumar, GFRC president Alfred King, along with other referees attached to the GFRC including Lawrence ‘Sparrow’ Griffith and Roy McArthur.
The facility, which is housed on Woolford Avenue and houses a library and conference room, which was incidentally first used by the GFRC, is being set up to fully serve the country’s athletes, sports administrators and to an extent media personnel.
In presenting the donation to Dr Anthony, King said the body is keen on developing the referees’ competence, through the hosting of workshops and seminars, as well as other developmental programmes.
He however noted that the council is more than just about churning out quality referees for the game of football and revealed that the GFRC recently concluded its five-year strategic plan, copies of which are now available at the Resource Centre.
“We would have taken time out – the entire executive team – to put together a five-year strategic plan for referees’ development.
And in the document you’d recognise that we understand fully our responsibilities as it relates to recruitment and training, mentoring of the referees, as it relates to strengthening the structures, on how we manage referees, mobilising resources and of course providing technical support for the development of our assessors and instructors,” King explained.
Dr Anthony commended King and his executives for seeing the need to make the donation, noting that other local associations, boards and federations should follow suit. He also encouraged the local governing bodies to house the materials they would receive from the respective governing bodies at the NSRC.
The minister also announced that the Sport Ministry will be hosting several courses during the coming months with specific focus on anti-doping.