Waugh wants collaboration from coaches to improve local football

CONCACAF Head of Coaching Education Andre Waugh has called for more solidarity between the nation’s best coaches to propel the game forward. Waugh’s comments follow the failure of both the senior under and Under-20 Reggae Boyz failure to qualify this year for their respective World Cup tournaments. These disappointments have bolstered Waugh’s desire to see the standard of coaching in the island improve.

Waugh urged the coaches to put aside the long standing practice of withholding information that could be beneficial to coaches across the island in the hopes of beating each other in local competitions. Waugh urged those present to get rid of the current mentality of focusing on winning solely and neglecting to pass on information that could see the game grow in quality right across the island. “We have this idea of being self-made, but the truth is we’re all here standing on the shoulders of giants.

We spend too much time competing against each other and not collaborating. Outside of the 90 minutes we’re not in a competition.” The statement came on the first of a two day Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) coaching conference, taking place on Saturday and Sunday. The event was largely focused on emphasising the need for improving the standard of coaching in the island.

In attendance were JFF president Michael Ricketts, several JFF board members, and over 100 coaches from across the island. The coaching conference featured interim national team Head Coach Rudolph Speid, and notable names such as Andrew Price, Jerome Waite, Anthony Patrick, Xavier Gilbert, and Leacroft Lettman. Merron Gordon, an assistant coach of the senior men’s national team during the last World Cup qualifying campaign, spoke at the conference and shared Waugh’s sentiment.

In a show of transparency he discussed in great detail how the national team set up to defend set plays against Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the USA in recent games. Gordon’s presentation was done with the aim of showing the coaches present that sharing similarly intricate details like formations and systems with their fellow coaches after the season would not give their opponents the edge that they suspect, but rather help to push the game forward. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t share this information, because I was a selfish coach, so I would keep information from others because I wanted to beat my friends who are also c…