By Neto Baptiste
Former national striker, Tevaughn “Peter Redz” Harriette, says he has turned to coaching as a means of filling the football void within, after a knee injury sustained while on national duty back in 2018 forced him off the field of play.
Harriette, who is still seeking to raise funds for a knee operation that could see him return to action shortly after, said he has taken up an assistant coaching role with long-time club and community team, Parham FC.
“The executive, currently, is putting together the final details to sign a contract with a coach, but they are appointing a coach to work along with me. I’ve been coaching them for the past 10 or 11 weeks because I can’t stay away from football. I can’t play now but I have to be involved and going on the park every afternoon trying to improve the guys, getting them ready for the season is a massive thing for me in keeping up my mental health because not playing is a mental strain,” he said.
Parham, who have won several Premier Division championships over the last two decades, struggled in the 2022/23 league, barely avoiding relegation to the First Division.
Harriette said the team cannot afford a repeat performance this season.
“Now, the FA just brought out a new format that four teams will be going down automatically and we can’t be in that four because Parham has never been demoted. It was just recently I spoke to them [to] let them know that we have to step up even a notch more although we have been training for so long, because we can’t go in the bottom half,” he said.
Harriette recently called on the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association to honour its obligation and assist him with funding his needed surgery.
