Jeffrey ‘Pedro’ Hazel is now the new Technical Director of the St. Kitts Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) replacing Lenny Lake who occupied that position for some eight years. General Secretary of the SKNFA Mr. Stanly Jacobs, made the announcement on the association’s web TV series SKN Football Weekly recently, where he also thanked Mr. Hazel’s predecessor for his sterling contribution to St. Kitts Nevis football. “Mr. Lenny Lake has been the St. Kitts Nevis technical director for quite some time… (he) has left the position to take up a position with FIFA. I want to take this opportunity to extend best wishes to Mr. Lenny Lake in his future endeavors,” Mr. Jacobs said. “We are happy for Mr. Lake because he came into the football association as one of the first homegrown technical directors in the region. Of course that opened the door for a new technical director to join. We conducted the normal interview process and we are happy to say to Mr. Jeffrey Hazel was head and shoulders above the other persons that were interviewed for the position,” Mr. Jacobs further disclosed.
Mr. Hazel, who has been involved with the coaching for several years, performed recent stints with the SKNFA’s women’s program and more recently with the Under 23s Boys team. He was also voted Coach of the Year in the Inaugural Crystal Awards in November and previously assisted with Senior Men’s Team coach Jacques Passy. Considering his wealth of experience and success, the SKNFA believes Hazel is the ideal man for the task. “Mr. Hazel is no stranger to football in St. Kitts and Nevis. He has been coach at the club level, coach at the U-23 level and the senior men’s coach for a number of years,” the SKNFA General Secretary said. “As an administrator and a manager of the game, he has been previously the director of sports and also an assistant high level official in the Department of Sports and the Ministry of Sports. So Mr. Hazel comes with a wide range of experience. Not just in coaching, because technical director position is far more than coaching,” he added.
Some persons tend to confuse the role of a Technical Director with a Coach. “Your head coach…is the person that is responsible for the day to day coaching and preparing of your team. (In this case) the senior men’s team. The technical director is a whole different ball game because the technical director is the person responsible for overall football development,” Jacobs explained.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hazel said he is ready to face the tasks ahead and has some ambitious plans to help improve St. Kitts and Nevis football in all categories. “The former technical director working with the FA would have laid a foundation so what we are going to do in my tenure is to build upon that foundation that has been set and focus on youth football development,” he said. “With our coaching education, we still have somewhere to go. We have to catch up with what’s happening with the rest of the world, so we will be doing a lot of work in that area. We still want to do some work in futsal and beach soccer. We have to look at the technology used in football; how to analyze games using technology. We are also looking at the entire development; from grassroots level going up to the world stage,” the new Technical Director explained. “It’s a long journey but it’s a journey that we know will bear many fruits for us.”