Establish an Award Programme for Club and Officials

May 07, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-club-and-officials/

– RHTY&SC, MS urges National Sports Commission

Guyana’s leading youth and sports organisation, the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, M.S has issued an appeal to Director of Sports Christopher Jones for the establishment of an award scheme for Clubs and Club officials across Guyana. The call was made by Club Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster during the recently held 27th RHTY&SC Annual Award Ceremony in-front of Jones, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Minister Amna Ally, Deputy Director of Sports Brian Smith and a host of prominent government and business officials.
Foster, who is the only Club official to have ever received the prestigious National Sports Personality Award from NSC, stated that it is totally unfair that awards are only given to national organisations when it is Clubs who provide them with the necessary athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen for them to excel. He noted that in the case of the RHTY&SC, the Club undertakes 500 programmes/activities and does more for Berbice Cricket than the Berbice Cricket Board and Guyana Cricket Board combined. Foster noted that Clubs and regional associations like the Flying Ace Cycling Club, Berbice Volleyball Association, Hearts of Oak Football Club, Demerara Cricket Club, Albion Cricket Club, Petra Football Organisation, GUYSUCO Training Centre among others richly deserve to be honoured as they do outstanding work and in most cases do much more work that the National Association.
Foster, who founded the RHTY&SC in 1990 at the tender age of 21, stated that National Associations can only be successful when Clubs work hard in their local communities to provide them with athletes, cricketers, footballers, volleyball players, basketballers etc. The Guyana Cricket Board, he stated cannot be successful if Clubs like the RHTY&SC, Albion, DCC, GCC, Everest, Tucker Park does not produce class cricketers, likewise the Guyana Football Federation, the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association and the Athletics Association of Guyana. Foster also stated that Club officials enjoy few benefits, have to work in different situations with poor facilities and most times without proper funding.
Officials of National Associations, however, do not have to produce sportsmen as this is the duties of Clubs, they have access to Government Facilities and in most cases have access to funding from their International parent Body. Foster, who has successfully spearheaded close to 9000 programmes/activities at the RHTY&SC and the Berbice Cricket Board, stated that he is shocked at some of the national awardees who he bluntly stated do not work as some Club Officials. It is totally unfair for Club officials not to be recognised simply because they are not members of the National Federations.
Names like Troy Mendonca, Levi Nedd, Vemen Walters, Mark Papannah, Randolph Roberts, Neil Humphrey, Roger Harper, Shabeer Baksh work beyond the call of duty at the Club level and richly deserves to be honoured he noted.
Sports in Guyana would be dead and buried without the contribution of Clubs as it is them who feeds the National Federation and Foster noted that while involvement at the National level is part time, the involvement at the Club level is a day to day involvement for officials.