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Harbour View to host Youth Reggae Cup for anniversary
February 10, 2023
Jamaica Premier League (JPL) champions, Harbour View, will be hosting a two-day competition between March 11 and 12, dubbed Youth Reggae Cup, as part of their 49th-anniversary celebration.
According to General Manager Clyde Jureidini, the staging of the Youth Reggae Cup will be in keeping with their standards, which are centred on the development of youth footballers.
"On March 4, we will celebrate our 49th anniversary as a club, and hence we have scheduled activities around that. This year, we will host our second Youth Reggae Cup, and it is part of our whole football development. This is where we started our tradition from in the 1960s when we played minor league, so we always cater to youth football and helping them to develop into senior players locally and internationally.
The Youth Reggae Cup competition will be divided into four sections: Under-7, Under-9, Under-11 and Under-13 categories, and Jureidini believes starting a competition at this stage of youth development is a no-brainer when success is desired later in their life.
"That's the only way in which you get true development. You are educating people in terms of how they grow and play the game, and, just like how you go to primary school, we start from the younger age and give them time to grow," Jureidini said.
Nicknamed 'Stars of the East', Harbour View have been a force to be reckoned with in local football since their inception in 1974, winning five Premier League titles in 2000, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2022, as well as the Caribbean Club Championships in 2004. They were the first locally based club to win the latter.
Harbour View, over the years, have a long list of stalwarts who have moved through their ranks to represent the national team. Among them are Peter Cargill, Ricardo Gardner, Damani Ralph, Luton Shelton and Jermaine Hue.
Jureidini added that hosting the age-group football competition ties into their beliefs that involve youth football being at the heart of it. He said that life skills would be taught, as learning the game is paramount to success.
"We have stayed true to that concept and philosophy, and, in recent times, the academies and schools have joined the club in this sort of competitiveness, and we are one of the few clubs that have joined that new dynamism in the Jamaican football landscape to develop with the times.
"We'll teach them the morals and the basic football skills along with the right attitude - don't rush to winning, rush to learning as learning takes time," Jureidini concluded.
