TTFF Gives 200 footballs for Special Olympics.
By: Shaun Fuentes.[/size]
The Special Olympics Caribbean organization will be staging a regional five a side tournament for Caribbean nations at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Tobago in November and up to 250 players are expected to be involved.
This was revealed Candilla Berment, executive director of Special Olympics Caribbean as she and director of sports and training for the regional body received 200 footballs from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation on Monday to go towards the tournament.
Berment added that football had quickly become the most popular sport among the special Olympians, particularly after an initiative between Special Olympics Caribbean and FIFA for a training workshop which took place in March 2003 at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus in Trinidad.
Football has attracted around three thousand (3000) special Olympians athletes participating in the twenty three (23) programs.
“ In order that we build capacity in the region had embarked on a process by building capacity in programs by first conducting training courses for coaches. Our objective is to use sport and in particular the sport of football to engender the habits of healthy life style and physical activity in the population of those with mental disability in the region,” Berment explained.
“Having completed the first regional training in conjunction with FIFA we recognized that the sport had taken off in the region and as such we feel that the time is opportune to continue on the momentum started by hosting a series of invitational competitions aimed at supporting the continued growth of the sport. Soon after this training we staged the first Regional Games for Special Olympics at the Mona Campus University of the West Indies in Jamaica in 2004, where we held football competitions hosting fourteen teams.
“We have therefore partnered with Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago in this regard and the Special Olympic athletes who look forward with anticipation to this competition in November to display their skills.
The tournament which runs from November 17-18 will be the biggest ever Special Olympics event and will include participating teams from Aruba, Barbados, Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia and T&T.
