It looks like Wim was Right

[Agent Jack Bauer]

I went to a Secondary School football match week before at the stadium between Fatima and CIC, and it was the worst football game I ever saw on Trinidad soil.  It ad been at least 12 years since I have seen a game.  There was no creativity or even any type of technical direction by either team.  At half time I was baffled as to why the coaching staff did not have the enitre team in the locker room reviewing team strategy.  The subs were on the field running schupid drills that should be kept for practice days.  The coaches for both teams were dressed as if they were out liming and not coaches.  If this game was an indication of how the other teams are playing and are being trained by the coaches then I have to agree that the nationl players should be protected from these coaches.

[Andre]

they still playing long ball or wha?

[congo]

I mite sound ignorant but I feel we lookin at a couple of years into the wilderness with our youth football..We don't have the structure or finances to finance club youth football and like every year the SSFL on a decline...I honestly feel that sports on the whole is on a downslide probably with the exception of cricket..

[Tenorsaw]

Leh we get real.  The SSFL lack proper structure and time to preapre our youth footballers for the international game. They play too much in too short a period of time, and a lot of the coaches are not fit for that level.  The SSFL is a moribund league. 

[congo]

Leh we get real. The SSFL lack proper structure and time to preapre our youth footballers for the international game. They play too much in too short a period of time, and a lot of the coaches are not fit for that level. The SSFL is a moribund league.

Basically...Think the SSFL just prepare them for future scholarships and academic opportunities more than the professional scene..Have something to put on uh college application nah...

[Bourbon]

I mite sound ignorant but I feel we lookin at a couple of years into the wilderness with our youth football..We don't have the structure or finances to finance club youth football and like every year the SSFL on a decline...I honestly feel that sports on the whole is on a downslide probably with the exception of cricket..

Exactly.We have a virtually non existant youth system. The men that coming up no where near many of their equivalents in the world. Unless that changes, we wont even be on the same level that we always were, but fall furthur behing as most of the other nations (the caribbean included) getting their act together. Initially i thought that taking wim so soon after the world cup was with the intention to implement that,buh he not here to develop players. 

[congo]

Structuring need to start from even the under 8..To come and start structuring from the SSFL levels is a waste of time..But everything is money and uh know we cheap..If football in trinidad was capable of financing themselves it would have been easier..A strategic approach with a couple of smart objectives are needed immediately

[Jumbie]

forget structure and whim and the youhts for ah sec.. this is what really got me.."coaches for both teams were dressed as if they were out liming". You mean dem fellas couldn't dust out dey Sunday bess?

 

[Agent Jack Bauer]

i dont know nah.  I was wondering to myself what is the hiring process for these coaches.  Secondary School football was never sophisticated but always exciting for me back in the late 80's - early 90's.  The coaches utilized the player talents corrctly(for th most part) and brought excitement to the games.  I felt ashamed looking at that game and wondered what these foreigners thought of us (well I know what they might be thinking of us).  It was funny how half time an old man came down fom his seat and was in sync with my chain of though as far as the coaching staff for both these teams suck. 

[ttcom]

First solution, Make all the SSFL coaches have a coaching license for that age group. In the off season conduct coaching course to get them up to speed.

Second solution, develop an off season training program for the youths. I remember Cornell coaching school in Carib on Saturday.

Nutrition, Players in training need to eat property. The snowcone and hops bread and cheese thing wont cut it.

[spideybuff]

Yeah the coachin situation is madness. I have partners, ppl who I just sweat ball with but was never in no formal team or anythign like that who teaching in a school and take over the football team cause they were teachers. These men have no idea about what it is like to play structured football...yet they teaching the youths. I remember when it had men like Roderick Warner, Muhammed Isa, Gally, Bertille coaching school teams. Men who were involved in the national scene.

But now...is whoever have time it seems.

[Socafan]

The snowcone and hops bread and cheese thing wont cut it.

Wha' rong wid sno cone an Hops and cheese? Dah is ah big big meal dere. All yuh need is some chilibibi an' all de food groups covered.

Nex yuh go say crix eh really vital.

[dcs]

The youth teams of the professional clubs is the only way to go.

SSFL doesn't seem very cooperative though...they don't want the students playing football all year round.
They are a proxy for the principals.

[Daft Trini]

Then de standard of foot ball will only drop from what I am reading and seeing. Man I wish I was a full ten years younger. I would ah surely be a break out star.....

[Slade]

Aye Nygll how you doing bro...

[palos]

Yeah the coachin situation is madness. I have partners, ppl who I just sweat ball with but was never in no formal team or anythign like that who teaching in a school and take over the football team cause they were teachers. These men have no idea about what it is like to play structured football...yet they teaching the youths. I remember when it had men like Roderick Warner, Muhammed Isa, Gally, Bertille coaching school teams. Men who were involved in the national scene.

But now...is whoever have time it seems.

In defence of those who fall into de category..."whoever have time"....I give you Harry Ramdass.

To the best of my knowledge never play cricket or football at no high level.

But de man devote he time to he students.  He put yoemans work into coaching Fatima students particularly in cricket but also football at the junior levels....giants and colts etc.

He is but one example.  Jean Lillywhite is another example of men who make time fuh youths eedah in dem school or dem community and give selflessly of dey time ofen goin above and beyond de call of duty.  It have plenty more throughout de twin island state.  Is nuff bake and shark Harry used to treat we to by Hi Hi after a game.

To dem I say ultimate respeck because dey didn't jes focus on developin athletes but also developin functional & productive young men and women in society in general.

Arrite...so some like me fall thru de cracks but daz not to diminish dese people efforts.

[morvant]

iz de same coaches

iz de same training pitches

de same venues to play at

de same if not more makreting

nuttin aint change

allyuh see world cup fields and get glad

seriously nuttin aint change just de level of football we exposed to is higher so we expectations ah little higher.

sorry to say but whim could hull he coudders munt if he say all ah we back home ix shyt

[DeSoWa]

iz de same coaches

iz de same training pitches

de same venues to play at

de same if not more makreting

nuttin aint change

allyuh see world cup fields and get glad

seriously nuttin aint change just de level of football we exposed to is higher so we expectations ah little higher.

sorry to say but whim could hull he coudders munt if he say all ah we back home ix shyt

Morvie, maybe dais de problem..ssfl is ah standstill..dey not improving with the times 

Big Up!

[Agent Jack Bauer]

Aye Nygll how you doing bro...

i cool partna.  was looking to come up on your side for the u20 WC but it looking kinna gloom but still possible.

[takenoprisoners]

First solution, Make all the SSFL coaches have a coaching license for that age group. In the off season conduct coaching course to get them up to speed.

Second solution, develop an off season training program for the youths. I remember Cornell coaching school in Carib on Saturday.

Nutrition, Players in training need to eat property. The snowcone and hops bread and cheese thing wont cut it.

Your first solution is bang on.
Forty plus years ago, Dom Basil Matthews had the vision to hire August Wooter followed by Amerigo Brunner to coach at St. Benedict's. They were foreign coaches and this met with much skepticism and ridicule for a while.( where have we heard that before?)  It wasn't long before Dom Basil Matthew's boldness paid off in spades.
These coaches were far superior to our National coach and within a short space of time produced 16 and 17 year olds who replaced many of our senior National team players who were in their prime. The rest is history.
Our Secondary School Principals need similar vision if we want to restore our sports to a high level.
Academics  is not the only criteria to measure a "good school".
Dom Basil has shown us how it can be done.
We need to develop our own local coaches, if not go foreign!
Only then will we have young quality players.
http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_DomBasilMatthews.html

[palos]

First solution, Make all the SSFL coaches have a coaching license for that age group. In the off season conduct coaching course to get them up to speed.

Second solution, develop an off season training program for the youths. I remember Cornell coaching school in Carib on Saturday.

Nutrition, Players in training need to eat property. The snowcone and hops bread and cheese thing wont cut it.

Your first solution is bang on.
Forty plus years ago, Dom Basil Matthews had the vision to hire August Wooter followed by Amerigo Brunner to coach at St. Benedict's. They were Surinamese coaches and this met with much skepticism and ridicule for a while.( where have we heard that before?)  It wasn't long before Dom Basil Matthew's boldness paid off in spades.
These coaches were far superior to our National coach and within a short space of time produced 16 and 17 year olds who replaced many of our senior National team players who were in their prime. The rest is history.
Our Secondary School Principals need similar vision if we want to restore our sports to a high level.
Academics  is not the only criteria to measure a "good school".
Dom Basil has shown us how it can be done.
We need to develop our own local coaches, if not go foreign!
Only then we will have young quality players.
http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_DomBasilMatthews.html

Did Dom Basil, Brunner or Wooter develop any local coaches?

[takenoprisoners]

First solution, Make all the SSFL coaches have a coaching license for that age group. In the off season conduct coaching course to get them up to speed.

Second solution, develop an off season training program for the youths. I remember Cornell coaching school in Carib on Saturday.

Nutrition, Players in training need to eat property. The snowcone and hops bread and cheese thing wont cut it.

Your first solution is bang on.
Forty plus years ago, Dom Basil Matthews had the vision to hire August Wooter followed by Amerigo Brunner to coach at St. Benedict's. They were Surinamese coaches and this met with much skepticism and ridicule for a while.( where have we heard that before?)  It wasn't long before Dom Basil Matthew's boldness paid off in spades.
These coaches were far superior to our National coach and within a short space of time produced 16 and 17 year olds who replaced many of our senior National team players who were in their prime. The rest is history.
Our Secondary School Principals need similar vision if we want to restore our sports to a high level.
Academics  is not the only criteria to measure a "good school".
Dom Basil has shown us how it can be done.
We need to develop our own local coaches, if not go foreign!
Only then we will have young quality players.
http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_DomBasilMatthews.html

Did Dom Basil, Brunner or Wooter develop any local coaches?

Not to my knowledge.

[maxg]

I don't know the criteria, or goal of SSFL at present...yet I am of the belief that it is the rsponsibilty of it's coaches to train and teach particular habits (like maths) to the school's representative team...i.e. like a Gym teacher teaches/works with the general student body, a school's coach should be working with those exceptional athletes, taking them to a higher level, and then testing his teachings and their learning ability against other school teams...thus emphasis placed on development and learning (or learning to learn perse)..However due the the historically high  entertainment value associated with past years, emphasis have really been placed on winning (bragging rights)....yet that level has to be left in the past, and we must seek development as a nation, not we better than weself attitude...
Without knowing what really takes place behind the scenes with so many school teams today, I think it may be unfair to judge the 'coaching' abilities of a few (especially one game) to pass judgement so many...but note, I don't know much either.

[jai john]

Yeah the coachin situation is madness. I have partners, ppl who I just sweat ball with but was never in no formal team or anythign like that who teaching in a school and take over the football team cause they were teachers. These men have no idea about what it is like to play structured football...yet they teaching the youths. I remember when it had men like Roderick Warner, Muhammed Isa, Gally, Bertille coaching school teams. Men who were involved in the national scene.

But now...is whoever have time it seems.

In defence of those who fall into de category..."whoever have time"....I give you Harry Ramdass.

To the best of my knowledge never play cricket or football at no high level.

But de man devote he time to he students.  He put yoemans work into coaching Fatima students particularly in cricket but also football at the junior levels....giants and colts etc.

He is but one example.  Jean Lillywhite is another example of men who make time fuh youths eedah in dem school or dem community and give selflessly of dey time ofen goin above and beyond de call of duty.  It have plenty more throughout de twin island state.  Is nuff bake and shark Harry used to treat we to by Hi Hi after a game.

To dem I say ultimate respeck because dey didn't jes focus on developin athletes but also developin functional & productive young men and women in society in general.

Arrite...so some like me fall thru de cracks but daz not to diminish dese people efforts.

Let me add trevor spicer to that list ..at least he had stern, mouse and a host of other El DO stars ...no big name but always with a bunch a balls on he back.

[palos]

Let me add trevor spicer to that list ..at least he had stern, mouse and a host of other El DO stars ...no big name but always with a bunch a balls on he back.

Unsung heros.

[TrinInfinite]

Im listening to people say the Whip is not doing enough to develop the locals, well for a man who is in tt most of the time, he should be holding 2 sessions a week for the local based, which would cost him almost nothing, other than to get the training pitch. At least our locals could gel and actually learn the system before they join their foreign counterparts to play. Instead the locals come 2gether 3-4 days before an try to fit into a system they have hardly had time to adjust to.

Another thing that should be done is the whip should pick a local team of core players and stop chopping and cutting. Get 25 of the bess and work with them, select from that crop and train with them, let them play eachother and train 2gether, which could consist of 2 teams, it would be good for our football. I think it would benefit us if the coach is more structured in his approach, right now its anybody's guess who will get selected next for the nat'l team...

God is de BOSS...

[kingman]

Im listening to people say the Whip is not doing enough to develop the locals, well for a man who is in tt most of the time, he should be holding 2 sessions a week for the local based, which would cost him almost nothing, other than to get the training pitch. At least our locals could gel and actually learn the system before they join their foreign counterparts to play. Instead the locals come 2gether 3-4 days before an try to fit into a system they have hardly had time to adjust to.

Another thing that should be done is the whip should pick a local team of core players and stop chopping and cutting. Get 25 of the bess and work with them, select from that crop and train with them, let them play eachother and train 2gether, which could consist of 2 teams, it would be good for our football. I think it would benefit us if the coach is more structured in his approach, right now its anybody's guess who will get selected next for the nat'l team...

God is de BOSS...

TI, you does have good intentions. I must say, and I like you for that. But TI, somethings that we see from the outside is easier said that done. First off, to get Wim to hold 2 sessions a day will cost the TTFF more money. And even though we do have money, it is not allocated properly. Secondly, I wish selection of players was totally left up to Wim (this would of course require that he is around Trinidad football for a longer period of time) but instead it in the hands of people like Anton Corneal and other lick bottom men. Poor Lincoln, he have good intentions but have little or no say in some of these selection. Anton feel he is some big qualified coach having coached a bunch of under 17 & 15 youths in Carolina for most of his life. Now that give him knowledge to coach our national senior team, select and scout talent.

Although Wim may invite players based on what he see in the PFL, he not surfacing the entire nation and electronic database on international player for other talent. And even if he is, it is mainly controlled by yours truely!! Anton and his local staff
I just working, reading and observing. I don't like to say too much but time will tell Trinbago.

Kingman

[congo]

Is it the job of the national team coach to develop the whole nation respective players or just the few assigned to him...Does a national team player takes on the role of developing players?

[Mango Chow!]

Yeah the coachin situation is madness. I have partners, ppl who I just sweat ball with but was never in no formal team or anythign like that who teaching in a school and take over the football team cause they were teachers. These men have no idea about what it is like to play structured football...yet they teaching the youths. I remember when it had men like Roderick Warner, Muhammed Isa, Gally, Bertille coaching school teams. Men who were involved in the national scene.

But now...is whoever have time it seems.

In defence of those who fall into de category..."whoever have time"....I give you Harry Ramdass.

To the best of my knowledge never play cricket or football at no high level.

But de man devote he time to he students.  He put yoemans work into coaching Fatima students particularly in cricket but also football at the junior levels....giants and colts etc.

He is but one example.  Jean Lillywhite is another example of men who make time fuh youths eedah in dem school or dem community and give selflessly of dey time ofen goin above and beyond de call of duty.  It have plenty more throughout de twin island state.  Is nuff bake and shark Harry used to treat we to by Hi Hi after a game.

To dem I say ultimate respeck because dey didn't jes focus on developin athletes but also developin functional & productive young men and women in society in general.

Arrite...so some like me fall thru de cracks but daz not to diminish dese people efforts.

     Allyuh men talking good talk here, but I would say this:  the responsibility for developing coaches at all levels and players at all age groups lies squarely on the shoulders of the TTFF.  NOBODY ELSE!!  Alot of us are criticising the SSFL for what the Colleges' League has now come to, but last time I checked, the development of players anywhere you go, begins long before these players reach the age of 11 or 12 which is generally the age that we all entered Secondary School.  I have seen alot of men talk about how "it not important to have acadamies" and all that, but how else are we going to develop our youths?  Even if a man could not afford to come to the USA to take up courses at the USSF or the NSCAA, or to go to England or Europe or Brazil, what does the TTFF have in place in the form of a basic standardized program to qualify a man that just wanted to even coach a local Under-8 team?  I genuinely don't know so i'm sincerely asking.  To me, it HAS to start from there.  We cannot continue to cry down the SSFL, they are only a product of our system.  As I have stated on previous posts: If Corneal and Whim and them ain't happy with the state of football in T&T at ANY aspect of youth development, then they need to stop talking and start making the necessary changes to bring our football development to a respectable level.  I am not talking about going out and physically coaching people all over the country either, but these men know what it takes to develop our youth and they can and should do something.  What proposals are being made to the TTFF? The government? The men that WANT  to coach but don't have the resources or education or knowledge? Lawd knows the Corneals have been involved in T&T and world football long enough to know what programs we need and who are the men in T&T that can be put in charge of teaching our youths.  It's not like we don't have the money or that jack warner isn't in corneal and them corner. 

[Lower St. John]

If football in trinidad was capable of financing themselves it would have been easier..A strategic approach with a couple of smart objectives are needed immediately

The financial position of and the people running the TTFF and the government have a big role to play in the development (or lack of development) of football in T&T.  The sad thing is that we have a man like Lincoln who could provide a couple of smart objectives but without any follow thru or support from the powers that be, it is all for naught.

It is funny that this topic come up on the heel of the topic on players not reaching their potential.  I will be the first to say that I have not seen an Intercol game since 87 but as it was back then, I am sure it is the same today, many intercol supporters focus on which player could beat (the flashy players) and very rarely focus on the fundamentally strong players or team play.  Men who posted about players not reaching their potential list a bunch of SSFL players that most men on the site could not agree on, which might be so because they did not see the one game out of a hundred where the so-call big player twist-up a whole team and score a beauty.  Totally wrong criteria for judging talent/potential.

In intercol far to often we see shining star "men" playing with boys.  But when taken out of the unstructured play of Intercol, we quickly realize how ordinary a player the star was because it was only natural talent but not tied together with a true understanding of the game.  Now I am not saying all of Intercol is/was unstructured but a high percentage was and was as a result of poor coaching. 

Poor coaching in Intercol is nothing new.  There was never any requirements to be a coach other than one having the time to do it.  To raise the standard, I think yuh have to raise the pay (as in any other profession) but then we get back to the question of financing the sport.  Is it the TTFF or the government.  I believe it is both but if I am the government, I would not trust the TTFF with to use the money rightly.  And the TTFF always claiming broke (from mismanagement).

Blessings