BY FABIAN BELGRAVE | OCT 13, 2022
Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, presenting the 1st place trophy to the Pinelands Netball Club following their win in the Youth Development Programme’s Sports Rally at The Lester Vaughan School last weekend. (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment)
The sports rally held last Saturday at the Lester Vaughan Secondary School, by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, was the culmination of a 10-week training programme.
The programme, which was on hiatus for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was implemented for 668 participants to have an outlet to improve their skills in a number of sporting areas including road tennis, football and netball.
Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, addressing participants, noted that some of the athletes were skilled above their age range and beyond the other team members as well.
He stated: “We should be able to identify those persons who are functioning at a higher level than normal and bring you together for further training, so that your process of moving to national player is faster. The top ten players in football, netball and other disciplines.”
Minister Griffith also encouraged participants to align themselves with organisations that would get them to the next level while striving to attain their personal goals.
“One of the things I want to say to you is the sky is the limit, what I’m hoping, is that you move from being teams across this country into clubs, meaning that there is more structure involved in the process.
“Understand that the Ministry is well placed, not only in the Youth Development Programme, but through the National Sports Council, to provide you with all the necessary assistance that you would want, to reach to the top of the discipline that you have decided to participate in,” stressed Mr. Griffith.
It was noted that the sports programme, which is prefaced with 40 hours of training to ensure participants have the basic playing rudiments before they enter the programme, also places emphasis on coaching the coaches at the community level to improve their skill set to further enhance the performance of those being coached.
Those in attendance were therefore urged to become “students of their game”.
