The National Coach Speaks

Nov 13, 2015 Sports

The Coach in Caribbean Society

By Jamaal Shabazz
The question has often been asked about the importance paid to the coach in Caribbean football, I want to carry it outside and address this in a bigger context.
The football coach is just as important to Caribbean society as a father, teacher, Religious leader and even a police officer. For when you ask a youngster in the Caribbean where is your father, in a lot of cases his dad is in North America, dead or in prison. So Caribbean coaches often inherit a player whose father has not been there for him and the coach becomes the father figure.
The coach has to guide, nurture and advise this youngster not just in football but in his life issues.
When the coach pulls the team together to pray before and after training, this is often the only contact some of these kids have with the acknowledgment of the existence of God. They give problems to go to church, the mosque or the Hindu temple yet they will submit to prayers at training or a game. So while the coach is not a Pastor Smith he now becomes a would-be religious leader.
At football when a player steals another’s cell phone, the Caribbean coach has got to play police and detective to solve the crime. The player who stole may be the best player on the team and now the coach has to emulate Judge Ian Chan in order to adjudicate the case with fairness and impartiality.
Indeed some of our best young players past through a period of petty pilfering, in their lives ……often forcing the efforts tantamount to that of a welfare officer, from the coach.
When one considers we got to ensure the player eats, gets transport, gears and other needs, it is clear the social and cultural task of the Caribbean coach.
Why then must the Caribbean coach be at the bottom of the food chain when his efforts play a major role in the overall stability of the region?
Reflect on how many a youth because of his coach and football, chose a different pathway than crime and delinquency?
In this regard the coach must be paid and compensated properly for his/ her efforts as a sports and social worker in Caribbean society. Their are coaches in the region who will take the job for pittance under the guise of patriotism and cause our noble profession to be disrespected.
I have seen coaches in Guyana become bitter because past administrations have refused to pay them a proper wage and instead of making a stance they “chicken out” …accept crap and bad mouth the officials behind their backs.
In Guyana the coaches made a big step by forming a coaches association but we must make a greater effort to develop ourselves in areas of public speaking, contract negotiation, dress code and generally how we carry and represent ourselves on and off the field.
We must attend management seminars, learn another language, improve our ability to motivate our charges and better articulate our ideals and philosophy to the media, the public and even corporate Guyana. This type of investment into our personal development will better equip us with the tools to function more effectively in a modern football environment.
A former president of the GFF mischievously gave a coach a copy of my contract during my previous employment in Guyana. The coach took the contract to a coaches association meeting to complain about how much Shabazz was paid ……as opposed to the local coaches. It’s instructive that his efforts was to complain about my wages rather than devise a means of how local coaches could elevate themselves to earn similar and even better wage packages.
I belong to a group of Caribbean coaches who want the best for my players, the teams that I coach and the nation that I represent. But based on my sacrifices I want the best for my family as well. Indeed it is said that the best charity that one can give is to one’s immediate family that is in need.
The Caribbean has a huge coaching presence in North America but when we start to export coaches to Europe and Asia then we know we getting there. Keep up the struggle……my dear coaches…..Caribbean society needs us.

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