BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN recent years, there has an increase in the contracting of footballers from St. Kitts and Nevis to play the game professionally in domestic leagues in many countries and also at colleges in the USA.
The footballers hail from different communities on St. Kitts and have played significant roles representing the Federation at different age groups and are now advancing their careers in the sport, with some of them being given academic opportunities.
The nation’s footballers who are oversees studying at universities, include Javiem Blanchette, Ejayson Henry, Irandy Byron, Travis Somersall, Kendall Liburd and lone female Kerise Hanley, while there are five players on the professional circuit.
Among those professionals are Gerrad Williams, who is a central midfielder playing for W Connection in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Tishan Hanley, who currently plays for Fredericksburg Hotspur in the USL Premier Development League in the USA; and Orlando Mitchum, who is a midfielder in the Antigua Barracuda FC and competes in the USL Professional Division in the USA.
Another professional, who can be termed one of the Federation’s greatest football exports, is Atiba Harris, who has been employed by some four different clubs in Major League Soccer and even got to the final of that league with FC Dallas. He is currently on contract with the Colorado Rapids.
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Harris, a forward, hails from the St. Peters area where he played for St. Peters FC as a youngster, captaining them to the SKNFA Premier League Finals during his tenure there.
The fifth professional from the Federation is the ever-green Keith ‘Kayamba’ Gumbs who, even at age 40, is a striker for the Indonesia Super League side - Arema Indonesia.
Gumbs has had stints in many countries playing for various clubs, with his spell at Sriwijaya FC in Indonesia being the most successful where he was a player/coach.
In an exclusive interview with Lenny Lake, the Technical Director of the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association told SKNVibes that the entity has benefitted tremendously from all these players, because in the past only a few of them were playing and studying overseas. But, now, with so many of them being based overseas, it gives hope to a lot of young players that there are opportunities out there for them to become professionals.
Lake is of the view that young footballers too would be given the opportunity to play overseas as professionals if they work assiduously to possess the talent and inculcate the right attitude.
Using Gumbs and Harris as an example, he said they have been on overseas contract for some years now and were able to maintain their status as professionals because of their attitude towards the game, their teammates, coaches and management.
Lake applauded the duo, stating that they are able to be still out there playing and being selected day in day out for their clubs.
“I think overall we must say that they have done us proud. They have lifted the country’s flag high and I am particularly pleased with their contribution so far. Rome was not built in a day and sometimes it takes small steps if you are going to get to wherever you are going, and I see this as a small step, a real growing force, and it is growing from day to day,” Lake said.
He said, too, that sometime in the past there were just two, and that number has since grown to five and shows that there are players in the Federation who could go out there and become professionals.
“Now we have Gumbs, Atiba, Gerrad, Orlando and Hanley, which shows that we have players that can go out there and become professionals and be out there playing for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis. And in turn, when they come back we always have the players looking forward to playing with them and try to learn from them. They will benefit from playing out there, and when we bring them back to play with us it is also a benefit for players on the national team and the upcoming players who are there as well.
“The opportunities to become a professional player are sometimes complicated, simply because you can get an opportunity to have a tryout by someone just seeing you in an ordinary national team game or some teams can invite you to a tryout and you go there and you do well, then they keep you.”
Lake stated, from the association’s standpoint, that they are hoping when they do play in international tournaments and showcase the young talent in the Federation scouts would be able to see them and give them opportunities.
“We are hoping that in the year to come we can give more opportunities to our young talent to become professionals and have them going out into the European, American and even the South American market to do tryouts and hoping that they are selected and given the opportunity to play at the professional level. The association is always willing to give opportunities, but at first there must be a trial.
“We also said to the players that they would have to begin to do files of themselves playing and training. Clubs sometimes ask for that instead of them coming to see you or you travelling to see them. They instead ask for a profile of the player and a video collection of some of the activities one has been doing, whether in training or in matches, and they look at it and you too can have the opportunity to be called as a player or to be called to a trial.
“Then there is the SKNFA website where we can download the videos and show it to the world, or we can have scouts link to those videos and the performances that will be on our website. So, we have endless opportunities right now in terms of players getting out there. So I think that in the future this number will definitely grow and there is no doubt we are now well on our way to getting a lot more players on the professional market.”
He then went on to expound on those who are attending universities and playing football.
“There is Javiem Blanchette who is a young bright talent and showed he has quality and is ready to take on top teams such as Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti, and now he is in Florida doing a degree. I know he was very fond of becoming a doctor and we are happy that he is out here going along with his career and playing the game of football, and we are looking to have him back from time to time once the opportunity arises to represent the country.
“Then you have Ejayson Henry who has been out there for a while and had returned for the Under 23 and now doing very well scoring a few goals. Then you have Irandy Byron who is in New York and who also is with the Under 23.”
Lake continued, “And we have Travis and Kendall who was in Texas and got scholarships the same time and now is in America playing. We have about five young players and players who represented our last Under 23, and who have gotten the opportunity to be in college and playing football. When you look at what we have, the future looks bright.”
He also made mention of a female footballer who was given a similar opportunity as her male counterparts.
“If you realise, football is now also becoming feminine and we have Kerise Hanley, who just went off to college on a football scholarship at Concordia in New York. And if you had looked around recently, you would have seen that the SKNFA is pushing female football. It is now a big project of ours and a very timely one as well.
“I want to wish Kerise well. She is nice little young player, very enthusiastic and a hard worker. We, too, will be able to call on her for her services when the women world cup qualifiers comes around and I think that is due next year.”
He added: “Normally, their stint will be about three to four years and I don’t think they have full scholarships. But what we have found out recently, is that they are not offering full scholarships anymore. They are offering what you call performance based scholarships, that is if your Grade Point Average is at the required level and your football game is at the required level, then you get incentives and bonuses to do your degree.”
Lake explained that for players coming from the Caribbean, one important criterion is the SAT Exams in which the players would have to score high in order to be eligible for a scholarship.
“You would find all those players would have done the SAT Exams and it is done by the SKNFA. Once we have a group of footballers interested in doing the SAT, we would have them tutored and prepared. We will choose a date in which the exam will be done, we bring them in, have them for three to four months, they practice then they go and do there exam. And once they have the scores they can make the contact to schools to get the opportunity. Because what we have found is that the talent is always the easiest part, but the performance at the exams is what makes the difference, because the better the score the better the school you attend.”
He added that several of these players have already represented the national team and, with that experience under their belts, they could be eligible for leadership roles on their school’s team.
“So, they are well on their way. I think that most of them, if not juniors, the seniors, at the school are about to graduate,” Lake declared.
He also made mention of Koyan Benjamin, who was at university on a scholarship as well, and has since completed his degree.
