Diaspora moving to help drive football development at the youth level

After an initial staging of a grass-roots camp for the community of Tivoli Gardens at the Edward Seaga Complex recently, the Jamaica Diaspora Football Association (JDFA) is now looking to spread the programme across the length and breadth of the country.

President of the JDFA, Michael ‘Mikey’ Barnes, said the island is in need of proper grass-roots structuring and that the organisation’s aim is to help drive development at the youth level.

Barnes hailed the first staging at Tivoli a success and said they have plans to host another at the west Kingston community on June 29 and another, at a community to be decided, in October.

“We came in to energise sport in Tivoli Gardens, especially football. We brought equipment, training gear, balls, and backpacks

“We gave them some professional training. We brought our own training crew, working with the coaches from Tivoli Gardens

“Everything went well, and Tivoli Gardens was delighted that someone came to lift the morale of the kids,” he said.

However, Tivoli was just the first stop on a long journey, said Barnes. “It’s not going to be our last. We promise to come back in June. June 29 is the date. We are going to buy some gears for the U13 team to enter the league. So we are putting Tivoli Gardens grass-roots programme back on the map.

“We are going to try for twice this year. We did one in March and maybe in October we do another, and maybe three times for the year next year,” he said.

“Our job is to wake up the parishes and implement grass-roots structuring so parishes can revamp their grass-roots programmes because right now, Jamaica is lacking at the grass roots.”

He revealed that the organisation is currently working on a creating a website to keep the public informed and to assist aspiring young Jamaican footballers access US universities and colleges.

“When the website comes up we will make the public know what is happening. We will have things published on the website. Students who are in high school who want to go to colleges overseas we will have people to take care of that, and other programmes will be on the website. After the website is completed, all you have to do is click on the app and go from there,” he explained.

He added that the hope is that the initiative will make the nation better equipped in preparing young players for the rigours of professional football.

“Grass roots is where we are going to remain for now. We have talent here, and we have to start waking up the young talent and get them ready, which is what the grass roots does so they can elevate and their talent can take them to higher places.

“So we are here to try and help the kids move on to the next level of football, and professional football does not come that easy. You have to be in a structured organisation, and from there, you can move on,” he said.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com