1 month ago
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PHILIP WILLIAMS, the former Dunbeholden coach, who resigned after two matches with the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) club, cited a conflict in schedule with his work as a teacher at St Andrew Technical High School and the St Catherine-based club, as his reason for calling it quits.
Williams noted that he had made the club aware of the situation for some time, but that the situation reached a point where they could be no compromises and that the school asked him to make a decision.
“It’s not really about the football. It’s about the full-time teaching job that I have, and the timetable could not be adjusted based on a shortage of staff,” he disclosed to The Gleaner.
“I was hoping it could have been solved but it has been going on from summer and we still hadn’t come to a solution.
“From in the summer I have been trying to get my timetable fixed, so that I would be able to undertake the Dunbeholden job properly. It was a situation that was made aware to them (club) for two weeks now.
“We were hoping me and the school could come to a proper solution. But now that the school term is up and running, the school has asked me to make a decision on that because we could not come to an amicable solution.”
Dunbeholden lost their first game of the season 3-0 to Arnett Gardens before going down 1-0 to newcomers Racing United in a St Catherine derby on Sunday. But despite their bad start, Williams said he was confident he could get it right if he could have stayed on.
“I am very disappointed. We have assembled a good team. We might not have started the season off how we wanted, but the team that is assembled is a good team and once they started to gel and buy into my philosophy, they could have done a lot of damage. So I am very disappointed,” he commented.
He added that the community and team will hurt the most from his departure, and wishes them all the best for the campaign.
“I am just wishing the Dunbeholden team and community all the best for the rest of the season. They have a decent team and as soon as they can get over the hump and get the first win under their belt, they will get going.”
Meanwhile, Dunbeholden general manager, Roger Simmonds, acknowledged that Williams had informed them of his situation for a couple of weeks now, and that the club was working to fill the void before this weekend’s game against Mount Pleasant.
“We would have gotten the message last (Sunday) night about three hours after the game that he is resigning.
“He had cited changes in his schedule at school, and he had indicated to us some scheduling conflicts, which would create a problem for him being available.
“We were looking forward to the relationship going forward. We would have hoped he stayed on but now we have to pivot and look at our options out there and see where we go from here,” he said.
The club has no clear target in mind, but Simmonds said, in their search for a prior to the start of the season, they interviewed a number of coaches, and will be going over that list and expanding it to ensure they select the right candidate as Williams’ replacement.
“The search that we were searching we would have had some targets then, and he (Williams) would have been our first choice. We will now move on and look at those other options, and try to widen the pool as well.
“We know we have a match coming up shortly, therefore we are actively doing our search to ensure that we get the right person. At the same time, we don’t want to rush things and make decisions that is not in keeping with the philosophy and ultimately the goal of the club. But we will see in due time who the next person will be for the job,” he said.
Nevertheless, he his confident the team will get its season on track in due time.
“We are optimistic that over this long season, we will get back in the groove of things and at the end of the day, we will be rightfully where we want to be, at least in the top four challenging for the title.”
English (US) ·