Futsal organiser wants to ‘keep the youths out of trouble’

The BallaSquad Futsal Tournament, taking place at Palm Grove Court off Spanish Town Road, will go into its quarterfinals tomorrow following last weekend’s round of 16 matches.

In the quarterfinals, Paradise United take on Wanka n Frenz at 5 p.m., Hot Topic play Westside United at 5 45 p.m., Joseph/Prosperity Strikers face Barsenal 6:30 p.m. and Leaders United go up against Palm Grove at 7: 15 p.m.

In last weekend’s round of 16, Barsenal scored the biggest win, a 4-1 victory over Omar, Hot Topic scored a 1-0 win over Ally, as did Wanka N Frenz over Bascho United, Leaders United also turned back Heights United 1-0 thanks to Rohan McEwan’s strike. Paradise stopped Dream Team by the same score and Palm Grove Scheme advanced on penalties after playing to a 2-2 draw with Elite Strikers. Westside advanced without kicking a ball, after Lintesa failed to show for their match.

Tournament organiser is Keno Levy, a former Meadhaven and Jamaica College player, started the competition last year.

“It’s really for the youths. I grew up in the community and I know what it is like for the youths there, so I can relate to what many of them are going through.

“Events like these are not kept in the community, so my friends and I said we are going to start a competition in an effort to try to keep the youths out of trouble.

“We wanted to bring the communities in Kingston 13 and Kingston 11 back together, so we started it last year, and what I have seen so far I didn’t expect.

“It’s a big improvement from last year. People from all the communities have been turning up to watch the games and that has given me the joy and the push to make it even better,” he told The Gleaner.

“The police come by and support us and watch the games each Sunday, and they say it’s the best thing they see right now and from the lawmen say that, it can only be good.”

Levy said they even had a coach from a prominent high school scouting players there, and that the coach even left his contact with him so he can recommend players for his programme, and it is opportunities like this he is hoping to use to change the direction of the lives of many youngsters in their surroundings.

“It would be good to get some of these youths in a different environment, which would help them to think differently and have a different mentality. “But if it wasn’t for this tournament that opportunity would never have come along, and this is a way to get the youths to focus on school, because they want to play Colts and Manning Cup,” he said.

He said they have tried to get sponsors on board to assist their cause but so far all their efforts have been futile.

Currently, all the funding comes out of his and his colleague’s pockets, who just want to have a positive impact on their communities. He made special mention of ex-Meadhaven and JC star, Keammar Daley, who he said has been a “big help”.

“But it is all about getting the community back on a level. We still have a lot of good people that come from these communities still going about their lives.

“The youths have a lot of negative influences around them but I try my best to do what I can to get them to see things differently,” he stated.

The knockout competition is scheduled to be completed on July 26 following the quarterfinals tomorrow and the semifinals on July 19.

The league competition, which took a break after the preliminary round, will resume on August 3 with the quarterfinal round.