Former national midfielder Arnold Dwarika is supporting the efforts to strengthen the development of local football with heavier emphasis on youth development. Dwarika, widely regarded as one of the most exciting playmakers and attacking players to wear a national shirt since the emergence of Russell Latapy in the 1980s, completed the TTFF/Dutch "C" License coaching course last week at the Hasely Crawford Stadium along with 22 other coaches. He mentioned that the knowledge gained at the course will assist him in developing younger players, particularly through the youth program being implemented at DirecTV North East Stars of which he is a member of the coaching staff.
"It's good to see the appointment of the new coach (Otto Pfister) but the development of the football will not come overnight. It's a phase that we need to be patient with. We seem to have forgotten the development of the youths in the past and I think this is good step now with these kind of courses which will help improve the level of their game," Dwarika said. "There have been problems with young players coming into the national set up and coaches have had problems in the past because they have to still teach the basics to the youngster. Hopefully now national coaches will not have so much of those problems. It should be almost automatic that when players come from their clubs they would have been trained the basics and it would now make it easier for the coach at the national level."
"There's a process in everything and this course is about developing younger coaches like myself who can now develop the youth players using a better system based on the knowledge we are gaining in these courses. I think it's the right approach. We will have our ups and downs but I think this is the reason we are taking these courses so we can improve and help the overall development of football in the country." The TTFF is also revamping its National Youth League with competitions in the Under-13, U-15 and U-17 age groups and a sum of $650,000 will be spent on the program which will include participating clubs which possess within its staff some of the coaches who have graduated from the "C" license courses thus far.
'c' license course
Coaches from latest 'C' License Course
Adrian Goodridge (Fire Service Youth Club), Anthony Rougier (South End), Arnold Dwarika (North East Stars), Dwayne Davis (Bishops East), Everett Williams (St Ann's Rangers), Gideon Toby, Johann Contaste (FC Santa Rosa), John Henry (Joe Public), Kenneth Phillip (West Side Super Stars), Kevin Jeffrey (North East Stars) Kyronne Granger (St Ann's Rangers), Marc Borde (St Francois National) Mario Matamoro (Leeds) Natalie Noel (Eagles Utd), Owen Khan (Joe Public), Randolph Jerome (North East Stars), Rawle St Louis, Roger Joseph, Roland Clarke (Joe Public), Steve Salim (Leeds), Martin George (SKHY), Victor Solomon (North East Stars), Barry Villaroel (WASA).