Children attend summer football camp
With Semi-Pro Football a fading memory and CARICOM Basketball a wound not yet healed, we decided to lower our sights a little bit and look at the sports scene from a vantage point much closer to the ground. News Five’s Faralee Gabourel found such a view on the Southside of Belize City.
Faralee Gabourel, Reporting
Summer camps for students on holiday are not that unusual, but how many camps teach children how to bounce a ball on their head and how to kick a ball with the instep of their feet? It’s called the Berger 404 Alumni Summer Camp and it’s only here that you’ll find itsy-bitsy boys and girls learning to play football.
Emerson Gill, President, Berger 404 Alumni Council
“The purpose of this summer camp is to develop some leadership skills and to in fact just raise self-esteem in youngsters who right now feel that they don’t have any other way to go.”
But they do have somewhere to go because everyday for the next two weeks from 8:32 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon any child old enough to walk can become a member of this camp, and the children aren’t complaining.
Emerson Gill
“It’s not difficult getting the kids. We have upwards of seventy kids here today but it varies because some are in summer school in the morning, some are in summer school in the afternoon so we have like a fluctuation of about one hundred and fifty kids daily.”
Faralee Gabourel
“Tanika, what have you learnt so far?”
Tanika Saldano
“I learn football, I learn like running and ball with your forehead, like that (shows movement) and I learn pushups. And I learn like this (shows movement) and I learn like this (jumping jacks).”
While Tanika seems to enjoy the rigorous exercise routine taught at the camp, her fellow footballer Shakira is content with sticking to the technical part of training.
Faralee Gabourel
“Shakira what have you learnt out here so far?”
Shakira Estelle
“About listening, working out and about the ball.”
While I may be older than these kids, I must admit that they know more about football than I do. Although their coaches tried to help me learn to kick the ball, a young aspiring goalie still put me to shame. Reporting for News Five, I am Faralee Gabourel
The Berger 404 Alumni Summer Camp runs for three weeks and will reconvene in December of this year. It is part of a three-year project geared towards preparing kids for football at the national level. The Berger 404 Alumni Council would like to thank its sponsors such as Krem Radio, The National Sports Council, Capital Life Insurance, Bowen and Bowen and The Tool Shed as well as others without whom this camp would not have been possible.
