YESTERDAY in the conference room of the Beepat’s building, the inaugural Milo Under-20 Secondary Schools football competition, which is organised by the Petra Organisation, was launched and is set to kick off in January of 2013.

Among those present at the launching were co-Directors of Petra, Troy Mendonca and Marlan Cole, Nestle Brand Manager, Selwyn Bobb and Ministry of Education’s Head of the Physical Education Department, Nicholas Fraser.
Mendonca opened his remarks by saying, “It is once again an honour to partner with Beepat’s through Nestle’s Milo Brand and also have the support of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health”.
The MoH is part of the initiative of spreading the truth about Gender Based Violence and also Young Adult Health and Wellness.
The former national footballer, Mendonca, stated that Petra’s main interest is to resuscitate football at the junior level and this tournament is testimony of that.
He said, “In the recent countrywide schools tournament the Georgetown teams yielded poor results and this tournament will mostly target the Georgetown teams.”
When Fraser spoke, he lauded the efforts of the Petra Organisation, further disclosing that the Ministry supports any initiative that will bring organised sports to the school. He also spoke well of the recently concluded Pee Wee Inter-School tournament which was another organised effort of Petra.
In Bobb’s brief remarks he declared that it was an honour to partner with Petra and the two ministerial bodies on this venture which he was certain will impact the lives of the participants.
Bobb noted that the Milo beverage is often dubbed ‘the drink of champions’ and is engineered to help release energy in the consumer thus making it the perfect choice to fuel the teams.
He further disclosed that approximately $3M was pumped into this 24-team tournament. In closing, he urged the teams to participate with true sportsmanship and hoped they would make the company proud.
Meanwhile, the 24 teams that are involved in the tournament have not been named completely. Up to press time yesterday, only 23 teams were identified and the final team is expected to be released soon.
They are Ascension, New Campbellville, Richard Ishmael, Charlestown, Queen’s College, Tucville, St Stanislaus College, Guyana Education Trust College, Brickdam, East Ruimveldt, North Georgetown, St George’s, St John’s, Cummings Lodge, Central, Houston, South Ruimveldt, Lodge, Christ Church, St Joseph, Bishops’, Tutorial and North Ruimveldt.
These teams will be divided into six groups of four to play on a round robin knockout basis where the top two teams from every group will advance to the knockout round along with the best four third place finishers.
Up for grabs is the top prize of $200 000 while second-, third- and fourth-placers will receive $100 000, $50 000 and $25 000 respectively. These four top prizes will be accompanied by trophies and medals. The cash prizes will go towards a project of choice by the schools such as sports equipment.
Individual prizes up for grabs include Best Goalkeeper, Highest Goalscorer, Best Coach and Most Supportive Parent.