Over the past few months, we told you about how the new administration of the Football Federation of Belize has been focusing trying to improve the level of play in Belize. They want our national teams to start seeing greater successes in international football tournaments. And so, they're focusing on developing the nation's footballers from very young.
That's why they're putting major resources into their grassroots football program, which seeks to bring proper instruction in the sport to all the primary school children countrywide.
This past week, the FFB and a FIFA instructor out of Guatemala have been working with coaches to get them ready to guide the youth footballers of Belize the right way.
They invited 124 primary school students to participate in their grassroots festival today at their Belmopan headquarters.
7News was there, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
For the past 5 days, the Football Federation of Belize has been running its annual grassroots football program. It's an initiative being given top priority by the FFB to start developing young Belizeans into future football stars, who will proudly represent Belize in international tournaments.
The premise is that in order to improve the overall abilities and the level of play the sport countrywide and at the national team level, we need to focus on developing talent from a young age, so that their fundamentals are stronger.
That's why the FFB has Grassroots Director who is traveling to different parts of the country to jumpstart the program.
Phillip Marin - Technical Director, FFB
"We have had our national director for Grassroots, Stanley Reneau. He has been going around the country, visiting primary schools, and implementing a 4-days grassroots training with them. The first 3-days, he worked with the kids, organizing tournaments, organizing festivals, and ensuring that the teachers at the primary schools understand how to train these kids that 6-12 years old at the primary school level."
And to ensure that the youth footballers are in good hands during the early stages of their development, the FFB has been training coaches and aspiring coaches about how best to harness these young talents.
Phillip Marin
"On Monday, we started the FIFA grassroots course. We have a total of 22 participants. The objective of this course is for us to teach the participants how to organize festivals, how to organize tournaments, and how to train these kids, to instill in the coaches that the purpose of grassroots football is for the kids to have fun. It's for them to enjoy the game. And we must encourage the participant at grassroots level, we must ensure that we have a solid foundation. We must ensure that all these coaches understand how to train these children at this level."
The course is being conducted by a FIFA instructor who's in country to help Belize develop its grassroots program.
Stanley Gardiner - FIFA Instructor
"With the coaches, we made an analysis of the situation of grassroots football, and we're trying to give them tools in order to improve the quality of game, and also the fun part of the game for kids because, we understand as coaches that kids will learn more from the game itself than being instructed. The methodology has been well accepted by coaches, and so far, as we've seen in the festival, the kids have been enjoying it a lot, and also learning."
His philosophy about teaching children the basics of the sport is to first get them to enjoy it, and not be turned off by how complex higher level play actually is.
Stanley Gardiner
"We are trying to inform them about the benefits of not over coaching the kids, and to make them play in small sided games. We have been giving them a lot of statistical information about how many touches a kid gets in an 11v11 game, versus what happens in the factors when playing small sided games like 5v5, 6v6, 7v7 and so forth."
Although the coordinators of the Grassroots program were hoping for more adults interested in learning how to coach children's football, they're reasonably satisfied with how this week's grassroots initiative has gone.
Stanley Gardiner
"I can't complain a thing about the coaches. They have been fantastic throughout the week. They have been very receptive. They have been paying attention a lot, and they have been participating actively through theoretical courses, and also the practices. The smiles of the kids we have behind can give you an idea if the work is good or not."
Phillip Marin
"It is welcoming, very welcoming. Most of the coaches, this is new to them. As you can see in the background, we're currently running our festival. We have a total of a 124 kids from the Cayo District. That includes Belmopan area, San Ignacio, Santa Elena, and also Benque. What they are doing, they're running activity and game. The activity focuses mostly on dribbling, and shooting. And the game focuses on 5v5 with the objective of the kids to score as many goals as possible."
Stanley Gardiner
"FIFA was expecting more, but so far, the 22 participants are doing great, and I think they will bring a lot of benefits to the kids in Belize, and for football in general."
The FFB is hoping that the 22 coaches who learned about grassroots football will return to their homes, and coordinate with the Federation's regional offices to carry out grassroots festivals for the children in their communities.
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