Western Bureau:

Everton Tomlinson, president of the Westmoreland Football Association, applauded the Sandals Foundation/Real Madrid Foundation six-day football clinic, particularly the coaches’ clinic element, which he believes will have a great impact on the youth football programme in Westmoreland and neighbouring parishes.

The clinic, hosted by Beaches Sandals Resort at the Long Bay Football Field in Negril, ending on Saturday, saw some 30 children, including five girls between ages nine to 14, and 25 local coaches benefitting from the exercise.

The first day of the clinic (Monday) was dedicated to the coaches, who got tactical as well as general coaching lessons from Real Madrid youth coach Carlos Blazquez.

“I think the coaches that attended have learned. I have listened to their comments and responses and in terms of the whole organisation, structure and delivery that has played a critical part in the coaching process. Hence, I am certain they leave here with better knowledge and understanding of how to deliver the subject of football,” said Tomlinson, who is also the chairman of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF)’s Technical Committee.

“It was an interesting and exciting clinic. The coaches are now more educated and equipped and, also, this enlightened them as to the correct way to get it across to the younger players,” he added.

Tomlinson, who was a part of the coaches’ clinic, said the coaches who got a chance to learn and imitate the Real Madrid style of transitional play now have a better knowledge of the game.

Meanwhile, Liz Kaiser, director of Sandals Foundation, was impressed with the increase in the number of girls that participated and is looking forward to even more in the future.

“They were invited. We are (letting) the schools know that young girls need to be a part of it. For the coaches’ camp, we actually had a coach that focuses on an entire girls’ football programme. They know that there is no prejudice against the gender, we are not saying to them that football is a male-dominated sport, no,” said Kaiser, who is also director of partnership marketing for Sandals and Beaches Resort.

“I think the Reggae Girlz is an inspiration to the younger girls. For this camp, we had five girls, which is more girls than in April, where we had only two girls. That’s more than a hundred percent increase and we are hoping in years to come, we will have more girls,” she added.