Although football has been the focus of Ballaz Academy, founder and director Andre Virtue is optimistic their holistic approach to youth development can make significant social change.

Ballaz hosted their fourth staging of the ‘Kick 4 Ur Heart’ fund-raiser tournament recently which saw nearly 700 players from 20 different academies and clubs competing across different age groups.

The tournament was established in 2022 in honour of Virtue’s father, who had passed away from a heart attack, and also to raise funds to cover the medical expenses of one of the academy’s coaches who experienced a similar health issue.

In the three years, they’ve raised health awareness campaigns, bought a defibrillator and installed fencing and an irrigation system at their home ground in Kingston to decrease a dust and waste issue which had been causing severe breathing problems for its players.

Virtue told the Jamaica Observer that one of the academy’s missions is to create a better society through football.

“Some real health and social issues are happening around us; our diet, our ability to deal with injuries or health concerns, how the players and parents understand the value of nutrition. So it’s very important for us to start as young as people to teach and empower our parents, coaches and players on what’s the right thing,” he said.

“With the information so accessible, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be more educated and informed because that creates a more knowledgeable ecosystem, it means that we are going to be doing the right things and if we are all doing the right things, that’s going to lead towards a much healthier lifestyle and healthier society.”

Health Minister Christopher Tufton was among the guests who made presentations during the tournament.

Virtue is hoping that Ballaz can form a partnership with the health ministry and other organisations to get coaches properly certified to increase the safety of the football community.

“We want to push and advocate for having every coach properly certified in first aid and CPR. If you’re on the sidelines, there’s injuries and so many things happening and we can’t take the risk of someone that is under your watch and you’re not equipped and prepared to deal with those eventualities,” he said.

“National Health Fund, Heart Foundation, partnering with a sponsor and with Ballaz in providing a training that persons can go and get certified and that way we feel more than just Ballaz, Norbrook strikers or Total Football Academy winning, it’s about all of us winning for football.”

On the football side, hosts Ballaz dominated the two-day tournament winning four of the six age group titles, under-8, 9, 10 and 12. Total Football Academy won the under-11 while Christians United took the under-7 title.

While pleased with his teams’ performance, Virtue says youth football is in a much better place after witnessing the overall quality on display.

“If you look back at COVID, both before and after, there really wasn’t much exposure for players in terms of year-round football so after playing schoolboy football from September to December, there wasn’t a lot from January to June but now there are a lot of academies, a lot of the clubs are in training,” he said.

“Week in and week out, the boys and girls are playing, getting the opportunities to learn, to grow and develop and the game is the teacher so when you put yourself in that environment, playing against better and stronger opponents, you’re going to improve. When the tide rises, it’s not just one person, everybody rises, so that’s great for youth football.”