Football: Atlanta Youth body donates gear to Haile Selassie school

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

It was all smiles on the face of members of the Haile Selassie High School's Pepsi and Colts football teams yesterday, after receiving sponsorship gear from Brian Stoddart, director of coaching at the Atlanta Youth Soccer Association.

The players received 20 pairs of football boots, along with a number of footballs, at yesterday's handover ceremony, which was held on the school compound in Tavares Gardens off Spanish Town.

"This is a part of our sustained outreach programme from the Atlanta Youth Soccer Association," said Stoddart, who is a past student of Wolmer's Boys.

Continuing support

"We were here last year and we brought them nets and balls and other equipment for the school and we want to continue this for years to come," said Stoddart.

"We chose Haile Selassie in particular because of the historic significance of Haile Selassie's visit in 1966 when he prepared this ground for this school," he said.

Stoddart added that Haile Selassie forms part of the cornerstone of our society and it is very important that they help sustain a viable sports programme there.

"We feel that a big part of sports is having the right equipment, which allows for better perfor-mances. It will prevent injuries and it gives you firmer footing," Stoddart said.

"We think that it will also give them a push to realise that somebody cares for their development as players, as well as human beings," Stoddart added.

Lorenzo Ellis, the principal, said his school is very delighted for the sponsorship because it will go far way to ease some of the financial burden from his institution.

Great need

"We are in need of sports gear and equipment," said Ellis, whose school withdrew from this season's Manning Cup competition.

"We're very challenged in terms of the amount of funds we can place in the area of sports and, therefore, any donation that we can get will enhance our sports programme."

Ellis added: "We believe that sports and culture, which we place a lot of emphasis on here at Haile Selassie, is one of the means of violence reduction in our school. Therefore, this sponsorship also helps to motivate our student athletes."

Jelanie Stewart, captain of the Colts team, said he and his teammates are happy for the gear.

"We are very happy because most of us don't have a good boots to play in, and so I want to thank them for giving us this sponsorship today," said Stewart.