Lawrence lauds TTFA development programme

National men’s football head coach Dennis Lawrence has endorsed the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) Primary Schools Project which was launched at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima on Wednesday.

The former Defence Force player was among a few local football heads who were present at the opening, including the likes of TTFA technical Director Anton Corneal, former national captain and current youth team head coach Russell Latapy and senior team assistant coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier.

“I think it’s exciting times for us. Not often you have the opportunity to get the kids at this age involved in any kind of sport so to have them in football in particular is fantastic and it bears well for the future. I am definitely excited about this programme. Nu Iron has done extremely well with the TTFA to put together this programme and hopefully Trinidad and Tobago will benefit from it,” Lawrence stated.

“It is massively important because I think it’s an opportunity to try and educate the kids, to work with them to see if we can improve them from a technical point of view, from a mental and physical point of view. This gives us the opportunity to get into them as soon as possible. Any programme that runs like this is valuable and it falls in line with what we want to do to try and change the course of Trinidad and Tobago football,” Lawrence added.

Noting that the TT men’s team would not be in heavy competitive football in 2018, the former Swansea City defender said it would be a busy development year for the country.

“I think it’s going to be a quieter year in terms of the noises around the world but in terms of in-house, there is going to be a lot of noise taking place like what we are seeing here today. This is part of the process where we need to concentrate on our development programmes and this is where it starts for all our future teams, Lawrence said.

The Primary Schools Programme is being hosted by the TTFA in conjunction with title sponsor Nu-Iron and the Ministry of Education and is called “Investing in our Youth. Kickstarting their Development.” The campaign will target 2,000 kids, both boys and girls between ages 5-9, learning and playing the game at various locations throughout the twin-island every week. Each participant will be outfitted with uniforms provided by the TTFA as part of Nu-Iron’s sponsorship arrangement.