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By Neto Baptiste
The Member of Parliament for the St Mary’s South Constituency, Hon Kelvin ‘Shugy’ Simon, is buoyed by the number of young footballers who continue to show interest, as he and his team finalize preparations for an eight-day trip to neighbouring St Kitts where they will play a number of friendly encounters.
The 18-member constituency team and seven officials are set to leave Antigua on August 18 and return on August 25 as they embark on a journey he hopes will be a unique bonding experience for the players and officials.
“Why I love it, too, is because there are a lot of youths involved. Many of them didn’t even have a passport and we made sure they got their passport — and if they never had a passport then you never travelled, so it is going to be, for a lot of them, their first time on a plane. Some had their passports but never travelled so this is the type of experience I want to give to the youngsters because growing up, we played sport, national team and otherwise. We know the fun and the joy from being around your peers and going to another island and it brings you closer together,” he said.
Simon, the United Progressive Party’s (UPP) spokesperson on sports, said the initiative serves two main purposes, one of which is to build camaraderie among players from the three teams in the constituency, and also as a reward for their hard work and discipline throughout the domestic football season. The teams are SAP, Bolans and Urlings.
Coach Koufee DeSilver said the players making the cut have all shown unwavering dedication and commitment.
“We started off with a tryout and we had to prepare food for them and all that sort of stuff. The tryouts were done mostly in the mornings and the difficult part for me, even up to today, is you look at some of the players and say ‘this is a player with potential or this is the 18 I want to carry to St Kitts’, but these are the players not showing up for practice … and you have to go to Plan B. So, you start putting your mindset on the players you see showing up instead of having your mind on the big players you think are supposed to be disciplined enough to practice,” he said.
The team will play three competitive matches in St Kitts while also taking part in a number of social activities.
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