Tappa gets tough - JamaicaObserver.com

Saturday, November 07, 2009 4:48 PM

Sport

Tappa gets tough

Fines Stewart, Johnson for missing flight

IAN BURNETT, @ THE CONCACAF GOLD CUP in USA

Thursday, July 02, 2009

LOS ANGELES, USA - Head coach Theodore Whitmore has laid down the ground rules for the Reggae Boyz for the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament after imposing heavy fines on seasoned professionals Damion Stewart and Jermaine Johnson, who missed their flight from the Norman Manley International Airport to Miami on Tuesday.

Stewart (left) and Johnson... did not arrive with Jamaican contingent in Miami.

Despite both players checking in on time and with the rest of the contingent departing Kingston for Miami en route to Los Angeles, Johnson and Stewart were nowhere to be found when the contingent arrived in Miami.
They arrived later in the afternoon, but missed a light training session at the Florida International University.

Whitmore was livid when he spoke to reporters yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles.

"To be honest there is no explanation, there is nothing to it because even before we boarded the flight we had heard of a last announcement call for passengers to board the flight. There was no excuse," he reiterated.

Of the 13 players down to travel on Tuesday, Ricardo Fuller and Ian Goodison were also absent. Goodison's situation with his passport at the UK Home Office remains the same, while it is reported that Fuller had personal business to attend to, which was further complicated by the change in original travel arrangements.

"Well basically what happened with Jermaine Johnson and Damion Stewart when they missed their flight, all I can say for now is that they will be heavily fined, based on our tour coming from the Cayman Islands.

"Both were involved in another incident coming from that tour and both were fined. We have a thing coming from that tour and we want to bring it into this tournament... the whole approach and discipline," Whitmore said.

He added that on the recent one-week pre-Gold Cup training camp in the Cayman Islands, Fuller, Luton Shelton, Johnson and Stewart were fined for various breaches of their code, and now he wants "to send a message across to the other players that we are in a no-nonsense mood".

Disciplinary issues aside, up to press time yesterday, 18 players - Ricardo Gardner, Dwayne Miller, Damion Stewart, Jermaine Johnson, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Demar Phillips, Claude Davis, Jason Morrison, Luton Shelton, Eric Vernon, Rafe Wolfe, Donovan Ricketts, Oneil Thompson, Tyrone Marshall, Dane Richards, Nicholas Addlery, Omar Cummings and Rodolph Austin - had arrived in Los Angeles and took part in a light training session in late afternoon.

Fuller, meanwhile, was scheduled to arrive last night.
But Whitmore had a positive outlook on the taxing travel arrangements for the players.

"I don't think that should be a problem... we all knew even before we came here what the travelling schedule was like, so we just have to focus and prepare our minds and when we get our rest we take it.

"We have the pool, we have the gym, so it should not be a problem," he insisted.

He was also hopeful that all his players, more than likely with the exception of Goodison, would be available for today's final training session ahead of tomorrow's Gold Cup opener against Canada at the Home Depot Center.

The coach was also sweating on the fitness of Gardner and Campbell-Ryce, but he was upbeat about the replacements in his squad.

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