THE newly installed president of Guardian Life Limited Meghon Miller-Brown says that her company remains fully committed to the development of youth through sports in Jamaica.

Miller-Brown, who was installed as president on June 1, told members of the KSAFA Executive, including their President Wayne Shaw, that they can expect the company’s continued support of their Under-10 football programme which is set to resume in the coming months.

“Guardian Life is very committed to youth development in Jamaica, and well over three years ago we partnered with KSAFA in sponsoring their Under-10 programme.

“COVID came and that dampened things a bit, but we are so happy to hear that the association is planning to restart, and we are very much interested in partnering again with the association to have the various tournaments and to train and develop the youth in the country because nobody gets great overnight,” she said.

The new Guardian Life president is hoping that one day Jamaica will be able to produce enough home-grown talent to field a complete team of locally based players.

“People get great by training, by being coached, by being developed, and we see this as a very, very good programme in this country — to develop our youth so that at some point in our future…we will see an all-Jamaican football team that represents Jamaica at the highest level and that can come out of the youth programme,” she insisted.

Miller-Brown says that there is a need to focus on boys in Jamaica and that the KSAFA Under-10 competition fits the bill perfectly.

“I think — especially with our boys in this country that need good role models, that need good mentorship, that need to learn discipline and teamwork — definitely this programme will assist in this regard so I am very happy that we are able to continue to our commitment and we are here just looking after life, taking care, allowing everybody to live secure and to live easy,” she commented.

Shaw, who took his executives to the Guardian Life offices at Trafalgar Road to show appreciation for the commitment shown to KSAFA over the years, was delighted that the company was making a commitment for the future as well.

“Guardian has been the sponsor for the KSAFA Under-10 competition since 2018. We took a break because of COVID and today [Thursday] we are just here to say thanks and showing our appreciation for all they have done for us. We are glad to know that they will be back on board for our next competition which we will kick off in August.”

He spoke of the significant growth and expansion of the tournament since it first began.

“We started with eight teams in 2018 at the Football Factory at Shortwood and we are now at the ‘Captain Burrell Centre of Excellence’. The last competition we had, we had 36 teams, clubs and academies from right across the country — not just Kingston and St. Andrew.”

Shaw also disclosed that there would be another competition coming on stream for an even younger age group of players.

“We are going to be having an under-8 competition, maybe by now and December. Our Second Vice-President Mark Bennett and our new General Secretary Patrick Watson, they are dealing with that so we will make an announcement soon concerning that competition.”

KSAFA is one of the few associations that have active youth football programmes in the country.

— Dwayne Richards