Tonight, the Belize Jaguars National Football Team members and coaches are making final preparations to go to the USA where Belize will make its historic first appearance in the Gold Cup.
And, there's a big pep rally being planned for tomorrow at the airport to give the team a fitting send-off.
But even as excitement is at a fever pitch, all is not well in the Jaguars camp, and on the cusp of departure, the team faces a major distraction.
That's because the FFB Executive decided last night that Assistant Coach Charlie Slusher will not accompany the team to the Gold Cup.
What effect – if any - this decision will have on the team is yet to be seen, but Slusher has been a major part of the coaching staff since the Copa Centroamericana. For a while, he was even interim head coach. But now, he's in the rearview mirror, and today, FFB president Ruperto Vicente explained the rationale behind the decision.
Ruperto Vicente - President, Football Federation of Belize
"It is not my style to bash anybody but looking back to Costa Rica we had difficulty with Mr. Slusher. He apologized and that is how we got him back on the national team, and there have been some things going on with him and the players and just recently on Saturday night, Mr. Slusher took the players out late at night for drinks and they came back to camp early or late Saturday morning. As of Saturday night they were out, and it was the assistant coach who took them out and came back late."
Daniel Ortiz
"It would seem fly in the face of Mr. Slusher who has been the one with the sort of the work horse taking over since the departure of coach Leroy Sherrier, he stepped in to take a leadership role. It's obvious that after that he deserves a little bit more respect and courtesy Sir. So did the federation take these things into consideration before they made a decision?"
Ruperto Vicente
"Certainly, we took everything into consideration. We took into consideration the fact that Charlie Slusher has been with us and Charlie love the sports and I understand that. Charlie has been with us since Mr. Lewis left and after he apologized, I took him in and I said, we are big men, even though he disrespected me in Costa Rica, but I will not hold that against Charlie but we see that the same thing that happened in Costa Rica is going to happen in United States and we cannot take that risk. This is not a pleasant moment for Charlie nor for me; I like Charlie and I respect him too and I would want to protect him as much as I possibly can and I have. But at this time I just cannot - it's an executive decision and the executive has made the decision and I have to go along with the decision of the executive, not to take Charlie at this time. We are not, I have said before, we are not firing Charilie, we are not getting rid of him. We believe he has great potential and I believe that Charlie is going to be the young man who is going to take our national team to higher heights. I believe in him and so I am going to keep Charlie and when we were talking to him this morning and that is to assure him that he is a part of the federation and we are not going to let him go, he is a part of us, he is a part of the family and so Charlie is going to be with the federation for as long as he desires."
Staff member Kent Gabourel will be acting Assistant Head Coach while the team is in the US.
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