By Neto Baptiste
Former president of the Old Road and Tryum FC, Keithroy Black, has added his voice to a call for the renaming of the FIFA-funded technical and training center in remembrance of deceased technical director, Rolston “Debu” Williams.
“This is just my opinion, me Keithroy Black saying this. I think it would sound good and look good because Debu has been our technical director for many years and I think he has done well as a coach and as a person and I am looking at the Paynters project to have it named the Rolston ‘Debu’ Williams Training Ground,” he said.
Black, who sought unsuccessfully to become the football association’s president back in 2017, made his plea just days after the president of the Lion Hill FC and a close friend of Williams, Devon Joseph, made a similar call.
Black believes the gesture is fitting given Williams’ contribution to the game, both as a coach and a player.
“I think we need to look at our people when they do well and we need to honour them, not just in talk, because after the few days when we would have laid Debu to rest all the talking would have been over and done with, and some of us may not even remember who Debu Williams was. So, I am saying, put his name up there so that those coming behind of us will know exactly who this man was and what he did for Antigua,” he said.
Williams, 55, passed away last Wednesday at the Mount St John’s Medical Centr. He was admitted to the facility just two days prior after complaining of numbness in his legs. In 2015, he became the first local coach to hold the position of technical director.