Director anticipates a better year for grassroots football

Jan 01, 2023 Sports

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Petra ‘Returned to Play’ with six tournaments…

Kaieteur News – December 23, 2022, marked the end of the Petra Organisation’s ‘Return to Play’ schedule for the year, which saw the Organisation execute half of a dozen football tournaments in the second half of the year, mere months after Guyana’s decision to alter COVID-19 restrictions to allow sporting activities.

The Organisation, led by Co-Directors Troy Mendonca and Marlan Cole, had initially planned a few more tournaments for the resuscitation of their operations, but marred by inclement weather and perhaps a few unavoidable hurdles, they discovered in hindsight that they will be able to successfully host six tournaments before the year expires.

Of the six tournaments hosted, five were at the School level and the other was a community-based undertaking.

They ended the three-year hiatus dominated by the pandemic, with the commencement of the Milo Schools Under-18 Football Tournament in July, which was won by Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) of Linden, following a final showdown with North Ruimveldt that ended 3 – 1. That tournament was completed in August.

The ExxonMobil Boys and Girls Under-14 Tournament followed and concluded in September with a historic feat that had Charlestown Secondary winning both Divisions of the Tournament.

In the Male Division, the champs won 3 – 2 on penalty kicks after finishing 1 – 1 at regulation time, against Ann’s Grove Secondary. The female champs defeated East Ruimveldt, 2 – 0, in the finale earlier in the day, which was the first step in achieving the accomplishment.

Simultaneously, Petra turned their attention to the GuyOil/Tradewind Tankers Under-18 Schools Football League, a title claimed by CWSS in commanding fashion when it wrapped up in October. The runner-up was Golden Grove, who, along with the champs, qualified for the

KFC Goodwill Tournament, another brainchild of Petra.

The Courts Pee-Wee Under-11 Tournament also made its return in fine fashion for the ninth year. That heavily anticipated event was won by Enterprise for the first time after an intense final against St. Pius, which ended 2 – 1.

Futsal front runners, Bent Street and Fruta Conquerors, claimed the male and female titles of the MVP Sports Futsal Tournament, respectively, which was hosted by Petra at the National Gymnasium. Bent Street settled Future Stars 8 – 4 to win the Men’s title while Fruta Conquerors steamrolled Tiger Bay 11 – 2 to cop the Women’s title.

The final event of the year was the KFC sponsored event, which was impressively won by Desrey Fox Secondary School Team after a nail-biting finale against St. Benedict’s College of Trinidad and Tobago.

Kaieteur Sport had an opportunity to speak with Mendonca following the conclusion of their half-year calendar of events, and he was ecstatic to share his views about their campaign.

Shedding some light on the organisation’s return, he stated, “We are happy to know that we were able to have a return because due to the absence, we would have put a pause on partnerships with our sponsors and supporters. But we were glad that once we returned to play after two years, our sponsors and supporters instilled a lot of faith in us to help achieve our objectives.”

Mendonca disclosed that even though Petra hosted six tournaments this year, it was more meaningful and impactful that the majority of events hosted were schools football, which kept to their mandate of helping the grassroots players to growth.

The Co-Director was very satisfied with the response by the Ministry of Education (MoE) for their partnership that allowed the schools to be involved and the use of the MoE Ground, which was home to all the tournaments.

Mendonca’s wish is to see more fans of the fraternity turn out to support the youths as the parents and teachers have done tirelessly throughout the season.

The Courts Pee Wee Under-11, which was recently staged, is the tournament that Mendonca believes is the one he has seen bore many fruit for the current senior national team and is happy to continue staging grassroots level tournaments from Under-11 to Under-18 in both Boys and Girls Divisions.

For 2023, there is not a definite number of tournaments Petra wishes to host but rather their objective to effectively provide the avenue for school players among that age group. He also added that they will revisit the table for the hosting of their Futsal and Senior Level football Tournaments, but their main focus is to fill that gap that has been non-existent for some time.

“We are very happy and thankful for the support provided by the Ministry of Education and Schools and the sponsors, they played a big role; we worked very closely with them and hope we can grow from strength to strength.”

“In terms of development, the most satisfying thing to see a lot of these youngsters that are now excelling at the highest level came through the programmes that we organized and that itself is satisfaction for the Petra organization. We would have identified an area that we think we can contribute and having done that, we have seen the impact,” Mendonca concluded.

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