A brief but significant opening ceremony took place at the Disaster Management conference room on Monday, June 12, 2017 to signal the start of a World Football Coaches Program which is a collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Director of Sports, Jamir Claxton, chaired the proceedings and in his opening remarks indicated that the initiative was taken by the Federation’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mark Brantley, who made the approach to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Netherlands so that they can arrange a coaching program to enhance the development of the game of Football within the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
He warmly welcomed the three coaches: Etienne Siliee; David Vetch and Ad Derksken.
Claxton explained that he was asked to coordinate the coaching program and indicated that the twenty-six coaches were carefully selected from throughout the island and noted that the persons participating in the course, were all expected to later utilize their newly acquired skills to train the young Footballers on the island.
Coach Ed Derksken spoke on behalf of his fellow coaches.
He stated that the program was designed for SIDS (Small Island Developing States) and pointed out that the course would be intensive and beneficial to the group if they would take it seriously and hoped that they would all achieve their personal goals. He also stressed that they must be punctual and regular in attendance in order to qualify for their certificates.
After the brief opening ceremony, the group headed to the Bath Village Playing field where they were taught certain aspects of the game, while the coaches assessed them as they engaged in an actual game of Football.
The week long program, which concluded today, involved theoretical and practical training aspects which included: What is football; inventory of personal goals; philosophy-everything starts with an idea; what is soccer; TIC principles; 10 steps in coaching; analyzing the game; attack and defence; social issues; shooting and finishing; the planning and execution of tournaments and evaluation.