Boyd

Leighton Levy, STAR Writer

The mercurial Walter Boyd, arguably one of Jamaica's best ever players, believes not enough is being done to teach young players local football history. If that was being done, Boyd argues, then younger players would be more passionate about the sport.

Last week Boyd was one of 177 graduates of the Jamaica Money Market Brokers/ Jamaica Football Federation/University of Technology ( JMMB/JFF/UTech) coaching course and came away from the programme with an Advanced Level One Certificate. The 42-year-old retired player, who was a member of Jamaica's history-making squad that qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, is of the view that Jamaica needs to spend more time learning about and celebrating its own players.

"I think that has not been done enough and it bugs me. I ask myself why," he lamented.

Boyd, who represented Jamaica on more than 60 occasions, cited as an example his own experience as a developing player. He said when he was called to the national squad, Wendell Downswell, a former national player who is now in charge of the National Under-17, was then the assistant to head coach Carl Brown. Boyd said it was only while he was at the coaching school he realised how much Downswell has been doing for football locally. "We never knew the history of the coach and you feel bad about it because you are supposed to know these things," he said. "If there is not someone who is there to tell you, there is not a document, there is no tape, there is nothing. I wish we would take it past that step where we would have some stuff to show that this is our history, this is our heritage."

Ignorance of Jamaica's football history, for example, has prevented people from knowing that Jamaica has its own style of play.

"A lot of people don't know this because they have never tried to dig and go as far. Sometimes I think we need to try to invest some more in our own history," he said.