The Trinidad and Tobago Football 7 Academy will be officially launched tomorrow at the Henry Street Recreation Ground in Trincity.
The Academy will have former National forward Stern John as one of its featured coaches with other support coaches overseeing training sessions for boys and girls between the ages of 5-17 year olds.
The goal is to create an everyday environment designed to produce the next generation of players.
The academy will stage tournaments locally and also create opportunities for international appearances.
All members will receive training for competition and recreational purposes that encourages healthy, active lifestyles. Players will receive individual instructions on their technique.
The T&T topscorer John, a former player in the English Premiership with Birmingham City and Sunderland, recently visited the Miami Soccer 7 Academy in Soccer Town, Pembroke Pines to witness the running of the Academy there as well as the Champion Porsche Soccer 7 America Cup which featured representative teams from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.
Both the T&T Football 7 Academy and the Miami Soccer 7 Academy were founded by Trinidadian Sham Mohammed and are affiliated to each other.
John expressed his eagerness to begin working with local youngsters.
“It’s been over two months or more that we’ve been going through the planning stages for this academy and finally we are down to the opening which I’m really excited about.
I think this is an excellent venture which will allow some of the local youngsters to get exposed to proper football training which will aid their physical and mental development and improving their skills both on and off the football field.
More importantly, we want kids learning to enjoy the game more and doing this in a fun environment. This is something I’ve had a strong desire to be part of and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be back home now and being able to work with kids,” he said.
“What this version of football will do is allow us to focus on some of the shortcomings in our players which shows up when we meet the Central American teams which is the intensity level of which we play and our ability to track players and create plays in small areas and play off the ball better as well.
Training sessions will be held at the Henry Street Recreation Ground where John grew up playing football and cricket as a youngster, between 5-7pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and also on Saturday mornings.
Interested persons can call 488 7001 or 485 7001 and make contact via facebook at Trinidad and Tobago Football 7 Academy for more information.
A football 7s exhibition game featuring John and some of his former teammates will take place tomorrow from 7pm.