‘We are not playing enough football’ – Des Morris

One former national footballer, Des Morris has opined that the top footballers here in St Vincent and the Grenadines do not play for long enough periods.

Morris made this assessment after he, his elder brother Pete Morris and two American college students – Jesper Broadban and Maria Sanzarie – conducted a two-week training camp at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

“We play here for three months and we put so much pressure on them (the players) to win… We look to them for good results and we blame them when they don’t,” Des reasoned.  

“St Vincent and the Grenadines has the world of talent, but I think it is the management where we are messing up, as we don’t play long enough,” he added.

“We need to have a full season of football at the youth level and at the senior level and if we continue to cut corners, it will show internationally,” he recommended.

Morris said apart from there only being national and area competitions, there are other factors affecting the sport here.

“It is the tactical aspect in which we are lacking … It is the programme, it is the curriculum, what are they learning when they play for their club,” Morris lamented.

Two-week training camp

Morris said the just-concluded camp was more than getting the youths to play football.

Apart from the actual soccer (football), the players were exposed to college processes, such as how to make a resumé and a profile.

“We also tried to teach them about not giving up,” Morris explained.

He revealed that one way of helping to fast track the process of Vincentian players making it to colleges and universities in the United States is to host a Football High School Classic.

“By doing this, you can get college and university coaches to come here and look at our players… Other countries in the region are doing that and it is working for them.

Morris said it is critical for Vincentian student athletes to get enrolled in a US college within a year of completing school here.

“We have to try to get them in within a year…If they don’t get into a division one college, they have to go division two and that is a setback,” Morris advised.

The Morris brothers, both former national players, have been conducting the football camp annually since 2002.

Their aim is to set up a football academy in the very near future.(RT)