Each member of the senior men’s and women’s teams of the North Leeward Predators Football Club was last Friday, presented with a football to do their personal training.
The presentation, which took place at the Golden Grove Playing Field, was the first phase of a programme which will see each male and female youth player being given a football as well.
Head of the North Leeward FC- Dwight Roberts, said that the idea was hatched after the National Club Championships were put on pause at the start of the year, following a spike in positive COVID-19 cases during December.
“With the increased restrictions on the COVID protocols we were looking at means of keeping the players active, because their training came to a halt. So I came up with the idea that one way of doing it is to ensure that the players do their own training in isolation … That is how that initiative came about,” Roberts explained.
Roberts noted that the initiative has a human element to it.
“We also see it as a means of making the players more responsible. We at North Leeward Predators are always looking at ways to empower the players,” he shared.
Roberts, who is also the Third Vice-President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), disclosed that the cost of the one-ball-one-player undertaking was borne by the club.
North Leeward Predators, after claiming the First Division title in 2017 and earning promotion to the Premier Division, placed second in that Division in 2018/19 to champions BESCO- Pastures, and repeated their runner-up finish in 2019/20 to winners Guardian General Hope International.