Ronson Williams, Alison Heydorn named footballers of the year

Feb 07, 2011 Sports

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– Rodrigues is top coach

By Franklin Wilson
Guyana’s number one goalkeeper, a member of the Country’s top club side Alpha United, was named the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) male player of the year when that entity held their Annual Awards Dinner and Gala at the Georgetown Club on Saturday night.
Lady Jags forward Alison Heydorn, who is the leading goal scorer (5) for Guyana, copped the female award for leading the Lady Jags to the Women’s World Cup Qualifying final round which took place in Mexico last October/November.

Heydorn’s Lady Jags was also named the Best National team for the year while Technical Director of Female football in the GFF and Head Coach of the Lady Jags, Mark Rodrigues, was named the Coach of the Year.
Williams has been a consistent performer for Guyana and Alpha United during 2010 which saw his club being unstoppable for yet another year. He was also named the Most Valuable Player and Most Outstanding goalkeeper in the GFF Super League which involved ten clubs and was sponsored by FIFA under the Win in CONCACAF with CONCACAF Initiative.
It did not end there for the lanky custodian; he also copped the Most Outstanding goalie award in the Super League/Super 8 knock-out tournament.
Another Alpha player, forward Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams and Rosignol United’s Delroy Fraser ended as the Super League’s highest goal scorers with 14 goals apiece, they were both rewarded.
Alpha United lifted the championship trophy and first place cheque for the second year. Upper Demerara’s Milerock, the Guyana Defence Force and Berbice’ Rosignol United placing 2nd to 4th. Buxton United received the Fair Play Team award.
Dwayne Jacobs, another member of Alpha United was the highest goal scorer in the Super League/Super 8 tournament with 3 goals.
Andrea Lashley took double awards in the Women’s Inter Association League; Lashley, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and also scored the most goals (8), led Georgetown to the championship for the second year.
Teammate and Lady Jags goalkeeper Ronette Cort copped the Most Outstanding Goalkeeper award as Georgetown dominated all the individual awards. Rupununi took the Fair Play Team trophy and also finished second in the league. Bartica placed third.

The Federation also recognised the contributions of a number of corporate entities during the year. Certificates of appreciation were presented to Digicel, Banks DIH Limited, Churches Chicken, New GPC Inc., Geddes Grant – Seven Seas, GT&T and Continental Group of Companies.
Certificates of Appreciation were also presented to the Media; Kaieteur News, Guyana Chronicle, Stabroek News, Guyana Times, Prime News, Capitol News, NCN and Channel 28.
The referees also came in for recognition with Stanley Lancaster taking the Referee of the year trophy.
Dion Inniss was named the Male Assistant Referee of the year. Sherwin Johnson took the Most Improved male Referee accolade with the Most Promising Assistant being Kevin Stephens. Lauren Mc Phoy was named the Most Promising female Assistant Referee.
A Special Appreciation Award was presented to Colin Baker of the Guyana Sports Development Foundation, based in the USA, while GFF boss Colin Klass received a Special Award from the Bartica Association for his contributions to the sport of which he has been at the helm since 1989.
Five more persons were honoured by the federation for their outstanding contributions to the game over the years. Those persons were Professor Aubrey Bishop, Ivor O’Brien, Lancelot Baptiste, John Yates and Allison Peters.
Meanwhile, feature remarks were delivered by the Honorable Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, who also represented President Bharrat Jagdeo who is on an official visit to India.
Dr. Anthony commended the GFF for the work and achievements during the year noting that there is still much room for improvement and the two entities will be working to improve their relationship during 2011.
He said there were many challenges between the two bodies but there are mature enough to work it out.
The Honorable Minister also shared with the audience a number of initiatives that his Ministry would be working on to improve and better sports and its development in Guyana in 2011 which includes the setting up of a Coaches body to assist with the proper certification of coaches across the board; improving the resource centre which he stated is not being fully utilised by the associations and federations; early development programmes in schools and the continued development and building of infrastructure around Guyana.
He informed that the Government of Guyana has set aside some 200M for ground development this year, a move that would be welcome by all.
Also delivering remarks were GFF President Colin Klass, General Secretary Noel Adonis who gave a review the Federations activities while Kirk Douglas, Administrator of the Super League also gave a review.

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