BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A call has been placed for local coaches to live up to their “responsibility” at the national level ahead of the Digicel Caribbean Cup and other prominent tournaments later this year.
Speaking to SKNVibes, the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association’s (SKNFA) National Technical Director, Lenny Lake, said the association has been looking for coaches for the Caribbean Cup but has not received a strong response from locals as yet.
“What is surprising is that we have been seeking persons to apply for the position and to date there is only one applicant from St. Kitts-Nevis. We have several applicants, but the majority are overseas—as far as South America, but our first choice is to get somebody local.
“I am very much disappointed that an opportunity like this is available and everybody is shunning away from the responsibility to coach the St. Kitts-Nevis national teams,” Lake said.
Apart from the Caribbean Cup, Lake said that coaching opportunities are also currently available at the U-23, U-20, U-17 and U-15 levels, all of which have World Cup qualifying tournaments in the near future.
While the selection of national coaches in the past had not typically been an issue because such persons were hand selected, Lake explained that the SKNFA has moved toward an interview process to eliminate any perception of favouritism.
He also noted that similar scrutiny would be implemented when the time came to select the players for the squad ahead of St. Kitts-Nevis’ first Caribbean Cup matches in October.
“There were several debutants that played for St. Kitts-Nevis [in recent international matches] and strategically we decided to have these games so we’d have a large pool to look at playing at that level, so when Digicel comes around it’s not a matter of hurriedly picking a squad to play, but strategically finding the best players to perform.”
Lake added that even Kittitians and Nevisians playing overseas in places such as the United States, Europe and South America would be inspected much closer so the best team possible could be chosen for the tournament, which serves as a qualifier for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
“We would have had times when we had some players [from overseas] who helped us tremendously and others who really did not,” he said. “Obviously, if we are going to invest those kinds of monies for players from Europe it has to be worthwhile and very strategic…so when they come over they are fulfilling our goal as well as theirs.”
For October when St. Kitts-Nevis kicks off its tournament with matches against the Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands, Lake emphasized that adequate preparation would be key.
In his recently appointed post of National Technical Director, Lake has been charged with advancing St. Kitts-Nevis’ national football development over the next four years and he noted that the nation must begin planning realistically and adequately for continual improvement.
“Looking at the World Cup, we see that it is very difficult to say you are going to qualify when you have the likes of Mexico and the USA, but when you look at teams in the Caribbean you have four or five qualifying for the Gold Cup.
“That is our first goal: to see how we can play at that level. Once we are consistent in the Gold Cup, we can begin thinking about the World Cup in the next 10 or 15 years,” he stated.
Following the conclusion of the SKNFA Digicel Premier League, St. Kitts-Nevis is expected to continue discussions with nations such as Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Venezuela and Cuba for potential international friendly matches to begin as early as July.
