GRENADA captain Anthony Modeste says he will be taking home the gospel that Jamaica is the ideal place for coaches region-wide to get certified, in a moving vote of thanks at the JMMB/JFF/UTech Coaching School.

The 37-year-old, who is in Jamaica to participate in the 14th Level One course of the school, to be held for the first time at the JFF Technical Centre in Mona, said he long recognised that there are opportunities in football after the playing career is over and he intends to make himself qualified and marketable.

“Getting certified is the right way to go and I think once you have done that you can go a bit further and learn more and I will definitely be encouraging other coaches in Grenada to come here,” Modeste said at the official launch of the course at the Mona facility on Saturday.

He said apart from the high level of instruction and a growing reputation of the school, the former Portmore United defender/midfielder added that Jamaica’s hospitality and vitality were other factors that drove his decision to sit the six-week course here.

“As you know Jamaica is my home away from home and I have a special bond with the Jamaican people, including Horace Reid and Captain (Horace) Burrell, so when the coaching opportunity arrived I thought it was fitting to come here,” Modeste told the Sunday Observer.

He said while he has been regarded as an accomplished player, Modeste believes that he has a valuable contribution to make from the sidelines.

“I think I have a lot to offer in the coaching aspect and I have been around a lot of coaches and I have learnt a lot… especially here in Jamaica at the Portmore United outfit and I compare it a bit with Grenada and I see where there’s need for improvement,” he noted.

Some 25 participants are down for the course, which had its first session on Saturday. Since its inception in 2009, the coaching school has certified 405 coaches in keeping with a mandate by the JFF that only qualified coaches will be allowed to practice in Jamaica.

Dean of the Faculty of Science and Sport at UTech, Dr Coilin Gyles, told the participating batch that they are a part of “a tradition that is developing” and that they should “make good use” of the opportunity.

Roy Thomas, associate director of the school, urged the class to report to school “with an open mind” and that they should “gather all the knowledge” at their disposal.

Meanwhile, FIFA Development Officer for the Caribbean Angenie Kanhai, who attended yesterday’s launch of the course, said she was largely satisfied with the development of the game in the region, but pointed to endemic prohibitive factors.

“It’s actually going pretty well, and of the 11 countries that I personally deal with, I am fairly satisfied in general where we are going with the grassroots programme, and in time junior and senior teams will develop. We must also be aware with size and population we have to be careful how we prioritise the development of football,” said the Trinidadian.

The other FIFA Development Officer for the region, Jamaican Howard McIntosh, said the challenges facing the sport’s development in the Caribbean are wide-ranging, but are being addressed systematically and over time.

“You would want to highlight poor infrastructure as the primary reason (for challenges), and when we talk about infrastructure we talk about the stadia, we talking about the training grounds and we talking about the surfaces because some people have it in terms of quantity, but not necessarily in terms of quality.

“I would also immediately point to coaching education as one of the areas that must be developed significantly in the region and I am happy to hear that CONCACAF will be launching a confederation-wide coaching education programme,” said McIntosh, who also attended yesterday’s function.