By Neto Baptiste
Coordinator of schools football Rowan Benjamin is anticipating increased participation for this year’s programme set to kickoff mid-September with a knockout competition.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Benjamin said there has been steady growth over the past few years where participation is concerned and believe that with schools being able to field more teams across some divisions it is highly likely that additional teams will compete this year.
“You’re talking about one secondary schools can have up to a maximum of five teams coming out of there so it’s a lot and I expect the numbers to grow again this year. There is a calendar of events out and hat’s since from the beginning of the year and the knockout competition should start somewhere around the 15th [September] but the league normally opens the first week in October,” he said.
Benjamin, a former national football coach, added that for now, he is quite satisfied with the man-power available to him where coaches are concerned.
“We have 15 coaches including myself and that’s a lot of coaches and I don’t know which other Caribbean country where you’d have that amount [of coaches] working for the government and other sports have quite a few as well. When you look at the amount of coaches employed by the Ministry of Sports it’s a huge amount and are we getting the returns? I would always say no more can be done,” he said.
As for possible consultation with schools on the upcoming competitions, the coordinator said there are no plans to meet with the principals as a unit.
“Certain things just doesn’t affect football, it affects all the sports and I meet with individual principals but collectively I am not going to do that. I met with them [individually] to get their feelings and to have discussions as to how they would want to see the football progress in the future. I have meetings with primary school principals and secondary school principals,” Benjamin said.
ABICE are the defending champions in the Under-20 Boys’ Division while the Under-20 equivalent was claimed by Princess Margaret School (PMS). The Antigua Grammar School (AGS) captured last season’s Under-16 Boys’ category with PMS taking home the Under-14 Boys’ crown. Golden Grove Primary claimed the Primary Schools competition.
