F.F.B.’s U13 Elite Boys Championship Closes; Belize City Region is the Champion
Welcome to this Monday’s edition of Sports Monday. Tonight, we will be bringing you the stats and highlights from the U13 Elite Boys Championship, the Benny’s Interoffice Basketball League, and the men’s national team basketball open tryouts. We begin our coverage with the Football Federation of Belize’s Under-thirteen Elite Boys Championship, which came to a close at the F.F.B. Stadium in Belmopan on Saturday. The top four teams in the competition, San Pedro, Stann Creek, Belize, and Cayo went head-to-head for first, second and third place. These young athletes showed out in character, discipline, and their love for the sport. But, in the end only one team claimed the title of champions. Here is a look at how it all played out.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
The first match of the day kicked off at one p.m. on the football pitch at the F.F.B. Stadium in Belmopan. The San Pedro and Stann Creek U13 boys faced off for third place. At the end of the official playing time, the match was tied at two goalsapiece. San Pedro eventually took home the third place victory in a penalty shootout, scoring four goals in a dominant display over Stann Creek’s two penalty goals. We spoke with Martin Vasquez, the F.F.B.’s Competitions Director, about the tournament.
Martin Vasquez
Martin Vasquez, Competitions Director, F.F.B.
“One of the things I want to mention about the tournament is that it has been a total success. It went for a period of seven weeks. We had a total participation of ten regions. So, each region had participation. And, from the very beginning we had the games ongoing, each one of the teams played a total of four games, and this point we managed to get the San Pedro and Stann Creek who are fighting for the third place and a three o’clock we will have Belize and Cayo fighting for the first place.The intention for this program is to be able to have our player develop to be able to address the needs of our players so from this age we could start identify talent in the players, so whenever they start move on to the other level which we will be having next year.”
As you heard, the Belize and Cayo teams squared off for first and second place. Belize would go on to win the match, with a commanding five to two goal victory. Team Belize’s Gillygion Nunez was the most effective in this match with a hat trick. The Football Federation of Belize has begun to place priority on player development and technical skills, starting with children at four-years-old, as Phillip Marin, the Technical Development Director at F.F.B., explained.
Phillip Marin
Phillip Marin, Technical Development Director, F.F.B.
“We have created a long term development plan, where we focus on these kids at an early age, from four years old so they learn the different motor skills, and when they come to the federation at the age of six they will be introduced to the different football elements. We are trying to see how we can structure the player development in different stages, starting at U-6 and then we move to U-19, then we go to U-11, then we move away from the academy and go to the regional and national competition development where we introduce competition to these kids at the regional level, boys and girls.”
In the individual awards categories for the U13 Elite Boys Championship, Shane Vernon walked away with Best Goalkeeper, Deon Meighan won Best Defense, Barrack Morey was awarded MVP and Best Midfielder, while Marlon Meza took home Most Goals and Best Forward. A pool of forty players from all ten participating regions will be selected by F.F.B for further development, says Competitions Director, Martin Vasquez.
Martin Vasquez
“One of the things we have been able to identify is that we have seen two things, the one most important is that we have seen the players enjoys and having fun. That is one of the key things in this game. We have also been able to identify, by having our technical staff that are monitoring these players. From these players we will be having a pool of forty players throughout the whole country of Belize which we will be working with for upcoming tournaments. So, we are basically scouting out players. Each of the weeks we had each region submit nine of their best player and from those players we are going to scout the best forty players.”
The Football Federation of Belize, President Mr. Sergio Chuc, the Executive Committee, management and all stakeholders congratulated all ten participating Elite selections in the Elite Boys Championship.
