Grand Bahama Island - Young soccer fanatics are going to get a real treat at this year’s Annual Summer Soccer Camp in Freeport set for June 22st to the 26th at the Freeport Football Rugby Club. Two top specialists in boys and girls skills training will be jetting in specially for the camp from the UK.


They both work there full time for the Football Association, the governing body for soccer, and spend all their time in schools working with would-be stars of the future.

They are part of a three-year program launched recently which aims to provide two million children with skills training via a coaching programme and a self-help website. It is expected to have a massive short and long-term impact on UK children and soccer in the country as a whole.

Those benefits are being brought to Grand Bahama by Jamie Godbold (top photo), the young coach who led the camp last year, and one of his colleagues, Tom Hartley (bottom photo), who will be new to the island, for this year’s camp which starts on Monday June 22 and runs to Friday June 26.

A spokesman for the Football Association in London said: “The coaches on this program have been trained to become experts in all aspects of working with children.

“They deliver leading-edge technical coaching, and have been trained to focus on meeting children's learning and individual needs, whatever their ability level.

“This means the Skills Programme is truly child-centred, inclusive and most importantly, fun.”

Jamie and Tom will be joined by perennial favourite former England international striker Luther Blissett (left) who will be bringing his blend of skill and humour for the fourth year in a row. Luther was an England teammate of Trevor Brooking, the former international midfielder heading up the FA’s skills initiative.

This trio will be supported by a large group of local coaches – as many as 30 helped at various points during the week last year – to ensure the almost 200 youngsters taking part have a great time and learn some valuable lessons.

Soccer had grown enormously in popularity on the island since the English Premier League camps first started almost six years ago. There will still be an EPL link this year when, for the first time, the new playing areas, part funded with a $90,000 donation from the league, will be in use.

The camp costs $175 per child but the deal parents get for that makes it the best summer camp bargain on the island. The kids are involved in activities from 9am to 3pm each day, get two full uniforms and a camp t-shirt, free lunch each day, swimming at lunchtime, fruit and unlimited water to drink.

Many children come back year after year and some of the assistant coaches this year were participants only a year or so ago. It attracts youngsters aged from six-to-16, with the majority in the nine-to-13 age group, and although 70 per cent are Bahamian there are usually more than a dozen nationalities represented.

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