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By Neto Baptiste
Member of Parliament (MP) for the St Mary’s South Constituency, Kelvin “Shugy” Simon, has labelled a recent tour of St Kitts by a constituency football team a success.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show shortly after the team’s return to Antigua this week, Simon said the experience has brought, what is a unit of players from different teams within the constituency, closer together.
“Looking back at how it all started and to see where we are today, actually summarizing the trip and looking back at all the fun times and the experience we had in St Kitts, it makes me nothing short of emotional because it just goes to show that determination, hard work, and a love for the community can make anything happen. And especially when you look at the youngsters that went on the trip, analysing the whole experience for them – more than half of them – I’d say about 10 or 11, would have never touched a plane before and just giving them the opportunity to see another country, experience life somewhere else, rub shoulders and build connections and network in another country and see how things are done outside of our shores, it’s nothing short of miraculous,” he said.
The MP said the one-week trip, during which the team engaged in a number of football matches and cultural activities, was ‘worth every ounce of effort’ and it is something he is hoping can become an annual event.
“We already gone back to the drawing board and the connections that we made down there would make next year even smoother, much more organized. This one was the first one – so trial and error. We’ve made some really good network down there so next year when we go it’s supposed to be bigger. Teams want to collaborate with us – even ministry officials from the government, they want us to actually turn it into a tournament. So we have to get back to the drawing board and try to tweak and improve and as I said make it bigger, make it more spectacular and we can expand it to more countries,” Simon said.
Head coach Koufee DeSilver, welcomed the unbeaten run by his team in St Kitts but said he was more impressed with how the players adapted to the change of environment while putting what they had learnt in training to use.
“A hard thing for me was to understand the style of play that St Kitts play. They’re very rough and I can tell you that they play very rough football. So adjusting was a thing for me but the result in terms of 5-1 and 1-1 was okay for me. Winning is not important as much as what you’re trying to accomplish on the field of play in terms of what we’re training to do and then to see that play out on the field. Even if we would have lost games, once we are doing what we’re supposed to do and do it the right way, that is a win for me,” he said.
In their opening clash, South Side FC recorded a confident 5-1 triumph over Police before playing from behind to salvage a 1-1 with Newtown FC.
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