BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN an effort to continue producing some of the country’s most promising footballers, earlier this year the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) conducted a CONCAF Grassroots Course and Festival in the rural areas of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Speaking to SKNVibes Sports, Technical Director of the SKNFA Lenny Lake stated that the initiative was to target children between the ages of six and12, and also the parents of aspiring footballers in that age group.
“It is an initiative by CONCACAF. They are trying to establish a programme for children to play football from the ages of six to12. What we have done in St. Kitts and Nevis is that we have asked CONCACAF to come in and do a number of courses; mostly working with the adults, parents and teachers, to come and learn how it is to prepare a child to play football.”
He added that they then hosted a festival with the grassroots footballers in the rural areas of St. Kitts and Nevis, which saw hundreds in attendance.
“Then we had a festival. The SKNFA decided to go to the rural areas of St. Kitts and Nevis. In Nevis we had the course being held in Cotton Ground and Jessups, then the festival was held in Gingerland. In St. Kitts the course and festival were held in St. Paul’s.
“We had 100 children taking part in the festival in Nevis and we had 200 children taking part in the festival in St. Kitts. The festival was sponsored by Kittitian Hill.
“The St. Paul’s community came out and supported the festival. At the end of the day we had a nice event to bring the event to a close.”
Disclosing the amount of parents who took part in the course on both islands, Lake said: “In Nevis we had 21 participants and in St. Kitts we had an average of 33 participants.”
He stated that this initiative was part of the SKNFA’s effort to further develop grassroots and assist in the establishment of a Grassroot Development League, which is due to start in April.
“The SKNFA saw this as a opportunity to develop grassroots and to assist in what we called a Grassroot Development League which is due to start on April 5 at Saddlers, where we would have all the communities brining their teams’ boys and girls from the ages six to12, where they would engage in tournaments versus each other once a month.”
He further stated the SKNFA is aiming to develop the grassroots not only to produce footballers, but also to impart life skills to the children.
“We continue to work feverishly on grassroots development for the future development of football. Grassroots football not only develops footballers, but it also helps in the development of life skills for the children and also discipline. We want to embrace this programme as much as possible to help mold lives and build a better society and better citizens and a better St. Kitts and Nevis.”
