Latest update February 4th, 2025 9:06 AM
Time will tell if the Corporate Community has listened to Digicel
By Rawle Welch
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Digicel Gregory Dean’s plea for other stakeholders to complement the efforts of the Company in assisting in the development of football at the junior level seemed not to have fallen on deaf ears as evidenced by the pledges of support made during the launching of the 3rd Annual Schools Tournament which was held on Monday, at the Pegasus Hotel.
Digicel CEO Gregory Dean addresses the crowd following the completion of the final last year at the Police Sports Club ground.
Dean, during a conversation with Kaieteur Sport following the completion of last year’s tournament had urged relevant stakeholders such as the Ministries of Education and Sport, in addition to other corporate entities and the local governing bodies for the Sport here, to not stay on the sidelines, but join the Company in helping to improve the standard of the game at the school level.
Judging from the remarks made by all the representatives of those entities it must come as a positive sign that they have listened and now appears willing to commit tangibly to the request made by the CEO to assist them in making the tournament not only the biggest to be staged locally, but also to contribute to reshaping the game’s landscape in an effort to guarantee a bright future for the sport here.
Dean in last year’s tournament review said he had seen an encouraging lift in the standard of play, while the record entry of schools that participated in the tournament as compared with the inaugural one was also heartening and clearly showed that with increased support what it could evolve into.
Well, it simply has grown into the biggest tournament in terms of participation and spread in this nation and one anticipates that should it enjoy similar success as last year’s, then many more corporate citizens will be knocking at Digicel’s doors to pledge further support soon.
It has the potential to rival many such undertakings that are held within the Caribbean, while also serving as a nursery for the national programme.
Dean had stated that if the Project could attract significant stakeholders then the likelihood of the general standard of play improving is real.
“If we could get the stakeholders to add their support and have the players playing at a consistently high level then we could begin to see the fruits of our efforts in the near future and not a distant one,” he had opined.
Dean had also identified certain areas of weakness among the teams and in an effort to correct those flaws the Company this year decided to recruit many present and former national players and coaches to conduct clinics among the schools in the various regions.
To further ensure that all are on board and the set goals are achieved, the Company also felt it necessary to conduct sessions for teachers as well and according to the general feedback they were well attended and received.
In three short years, the tournament has become the talk of the town and Digicel must be commended for displaying the fortitude to not only invest huge sums of money to stage the nationwide event, but also for being an enduring corporate citizen and assisting in the spotting of talent for the national programme, an exercise that has not been matched by even those responsible for the sport.
At least, the CEO and Staff must feel some sense of satisfaction that through their efforts the sport has now re-entered the school system and even though they will not readily admit it, it is the Digicel tournament that has inspired the resurgence in all the Regions of Guyana.
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