Charlton Athletic Community Trust / Jason Roberts Foundation Grenada Trip 2009

• Grenada programmes
• UK programmes

In July 2009 a position was made available to go to the country of Grenada to be able to support and work along with the Jason Roberts Foundation that has begun to build a very positive reputation in the country and also in England. The scheme has some very exiting ideas and new developments for the coming years. Andrew Wood from Charlton Athletic Community Trust spent a week with the scheme working alongside Otis Roberts, Gary Mulcahey, Derek Brown and Alan Paris.

The foundation was started in 2007 and is now 15 months into its 2 year program. The scheme has worked in many different areas of the country and works in some of the most deprived areas to offer the young people of the country the opportunity to participate in organized football sessions.

Day 1

The first day was spent traveling to Grenada from London Gatwick via Antigua.

Day 2

The first full day was spent working on 2 different soccer courses with some of the young people in the areas of Sauteurs and River Sallee. The coaches were divided and taken to their different venues. The courses were very similar to the courses that Charlton Athletic Community Trust. The morning was spent working with the young people on different skills and different subjects such as passing, heading, special awareness and shooting. The afternoon gave the young people the opportunity to take part in an organized football tournament. The young people didn’t have to pay to join in with the sessions and there were also Charlton Athletic shirts and England shirts that were used as prises for the young people that deserved rewarding at the end of the days.

The pictures above show the venue of River Sallee with some of the young people that took part in the day’s activities.

Day 3

Gary Mulcahey managed to arrange TV interviews for all the coaches on channels GIS and GBN. The coaches all met with Ray Roberts and Raul Titus to speak on their breakfast shows. The interviews were to discuss the current football climate and also to promote the Jason Roberts Foundation and what sessions were being run during the week. In the evening their was an evening session that had been arranged for the young people of Grand Mall in St David. The Foundation had recently been donated some portable floodlights to use for sessions on the island. This was seen as a massive advantage to have this luxury as the country had a distinct lack of lights on the island. This could also help to prolong the program as local people were asking to hire and pay for use of these lights. It was very interesting to see the reaction to the lights as the Grenadian National Stadium did not even have floodlights.

Day 4

The Grenadian at Rex Resorts Hotel was kind enough to offer some spaces for the coaches that came across for the week and as a agreement for this a sessions was run for the adults and young people from the public that were also staying at the hotel. The evening was spent attending an event called Fish Friday with some of the local people in an area of the country called Gouyave. This was an event spent socializing with the local community, Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas some of the West Indies Cricket Team and World Junior Record Holder, 16 year old, Kurani James, these where all visitors to the event during the evening.

Day 5

The highest attended and most organized sessions were on the Saturday at Morne Rouge. This was one of the only areas of the country that had arranged activities for the young people of Grenada. There’s only one league of 3 divisions in the whole of the Grenada that have been set up by Grenadian Football Association and they are for the adults of Grenada. The Saturday morning club was run from 9.00am to 11.00am with all young people aged from 6 to 16 years of age able to attend for free to work on skills and drills from 9-10 and an organized tournament from 10-11. After the morning club had ended the coaches from England had a chance to mentor some of the coaches on the island with a coach’s workshop. The visitors ran sessions and helped some of the local coaches with some techniques and skills to help progress their abilities. The local coaches were progressing well since the trip that was attended by Charlton in 2008 but there was still room for improvement and the coaches seems to need to increase their knowledge on age specific activities for the young people to participate in.

Day 6

The day was designed to be a day off to re-charge the batteries ready for the last two days but, luckily enough, the GFA Premier League first game and also a League 2 game was scheduled for Sunday, 19th and the coaches attended the match to watch and support the four teams. Unfortunately the weather had a massive impact on the two games. We then watch the two premier league teams play in the only venue in Grenada that has floodlights, so this is why the donation of the portable floodlights to the Jason Roberts Foundation is so key to future success of the program! This is considered an honor for these players. The national coach of Grenada, English man Tommy Taylor, attended these two games and some of the national players were on show for the premier league sides.

Day 7

This was the second day soccer course to take place during the visit to the island. The course took place at Progress Park in St Andrews. This was also free for young people to attend and stay for the days coaching. This was attended by over 100 young people and there were four pitches that the young people could play on. The groups were divided by ages and sent for training in the morning and then to play football tournaments in the afternoon. The young people that attended this session were young people with specific parenting issues and needed assistance in their attitude development and also some self esteem building activities but the young people were also a pleasure to coach.

Below are some of the pictures that were taken from this very busy day in the east of the island.

Day 8

The last day of the trip was going to be cut short due to the timings of the flights back to England so the coaches were able to take part in the mornings coaching sessions before heading back to the airport. The session took place at the Belle View Field in St David. Many young people from the local area took part in the session.

Conclusion

The young people of Grenada are very lucky to have the opportunity to be able to attend the sessions that are being provided by the Jason Roberts Foundation and this will only improve the abilities of these young people and also help the local community to reduce crime and also create a feel good factor everywhere they attend. The recent donation of floodlights will help the scheme to progress and also help to fund for the future. The facilities and equipment that is accessible for the young people of the country is very poor and this will decrease the chances of finding excellence of the island but the scheme is making great improvements.

Andrew Wood Charlton Athletic Community Trust