National senior football coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore gave high marks to the JFF and organisers for a very well organised Under-13 and Under-15 Challenge Cup juvenile football competition which ended recently with an awards ceremony at the JFF Headquarters.

Whitmore, while delivering the keynote address, applauded Kingston, St Andrew and Westmoreland for reaching the finals with St Andrew winning the Under-15 title by edging Kingston 2-1 on a brace from Raffique Bryan, while Wayne Campbell and Dane Thomas scored a goal each to give Kingston a 2-0 win over Westmoreland in the Under-13 final.

Whitmore was also very impressed by the approach of coaches and the talent unearthed, and he challenged the players to continue to improve their skills and concentrate on their chosen areas as these could be the foundation upon which Jamaica’s football future will be built.

After congratulating the players, managers and their coaches for their solid efforts while collecting their well-earned medals and incentives, the former Jamaican international and the local hero of the 1998 World Cup Finals in France declared: “Believe me I know the challenges you face. But I also know the pride you feel when the players do well.”

Being himself from western Jamaica, Whitmore said that special congratulations must go to the players from Westmoreland who did western Jamaica proud. “I always feel good when teams from the west excel.”

Westmoreland was the only team from the west to reach the final stages of the competition and the first Under-13 team from the parish to reach the final.

The kernel of his keynote message was directed not only toward the young players from the three parishes who reached the finals, but to all young and upcoming players from the length and breadth of Jamaica who play the game of football and would one day want to become a member of the national squad.

Whitmore went even further and put the question to them for a show of hands as to who would one day like to represent Jamaica. The response was not surprisingly a positive one.

Following the positive response, the national head coach explained that his short talk was to raise critical awareness with some special issues of quality, which as national coach he will be looking for in his players and he hoped that this could help “you to be better footballers over the coming years”.

Using reverse psychology to drive home his point, Whitmore added: “But let me first tell you what I am not going to stress… I won’t talk about wanting players who are scoring goals because you know that I think we are all clear on the importance of selecting players who are scoring goals. If you are on the score sheet regularly for your club you will always get the attention of the national coach.

“I’m not going to talk either about wanting good defenders because you know the importance of those positions. I’m not even going to talk about looking for inform goalkeepers with clean sheets for you know that is critical.

“I am not going to stress what I know a lot about, as an ex-player that is the importance of the playmaker, especially in the midfield.”

Getting into the real meat of his address, he pointed out that the following are things he would want the players to pay strict attention to as they grow and strive to get more experience.

“You need to be fit. You need to pay attention to your nutrition. Eat the right things. Eat to be strong and fit. Injury comes with football but if you are not fit it is easier to get injured to the extent that you cannot play. Secondly, you must have pace and this is related to the first point because you have to eat well and build your body strength so as to have pace and to be able to maintain pace.

“Another thing that is pleasing to the coach is consistency. Coaches don’t want a player to play good today and for the next couple of games we get nothing from him. Coaches want reliable players who every time he is on the field he is delivering. Not sometimes, but all the times.”

In his attempt to outline the basis for reliable play within the team structure, Whitmore also stressed the importance of ball possession and the pitfalls of being selfish when another player is in a better position that could have produced a better result. However, through selfishness an opportunity was lost. Whitmore pointed out to the players “that every position on the field is of the utmost importance”.

He also stressed the importance of paying great attention to ball possession and rotation to maximise effort.

In ending Whitmore implored the players to remember that “football is just a game”.

“If you love it and enjoy it and do all the other things mentioned you will do much better. I loved it. I had fun with it and this made my game much better,” he acknowledged.