Dear Editor,

The National Team’s participation in the 2013 Gold Cup is already yesterday’s news. Win, lose or draw, the question that the country must now wrestle with is what do we do now? What is the next step that must be taken to ensure that the skill level of our players continues to improve and that we work in earnest to capture future players now and develop them into future world-class athletes?

There are several approaches that can be taken to see this happen:

Firstly, withdraw from all future competition for a period of say seven to ten years, during which time a more serious attempt is made in training our athletes to become world-class players. Actually use the funds that FIFA gives to the country that is earmarked for development, for just that – “development” of the athlete. The focus would then be on acquiring the appropriate training equipment, coaching staff, nutritionists and whatever else the rest of the world is doing to produce top-notched athletes; we do not have to reinvent the wheel, just do what the rest of the world has already done to yield good results.

Secondly, state-of-the-art fields must be provided. Currently, almost if not all of the playing fields are substandard; pieces of land covered in sour grass, filled with crab-holes and compacted soil that occasionally gets wet by the Fire Department’s hose. No individual, much less professional athletes, should be subjected to playing on fields with these conditions. There is an actual science to field maintenance that should be studied and used (e.g., http://turf.umn.edu).

Lastly, develop a marketing strategy that will actually have the citizens wanting to come out and see the games and support the players. The most recent game played in Belmopan was poorly attended; there might have been 50 people in the stadium. This is sad, but it shows how everything is connected. I, John Q. Public, will not leave the comfort of my house to sit in a broken down stadium to watch average players run across a sour grass-filled field, kicking up dust as they stumble into crab-holes.

A couple years ago I saw the National Team play Mexico in Houston, Texas and that was an experience. There were Mariachi bands outside the stadium entertaining the crowd; Belize had no such representation. There were folks selling items memorializing the event; Belize had no such participation. Then once inside the stadium, it was a lush, green carpet of grass or astro turf that the teams would play on; never saw that in Belize. Sure we can continue to make the excuse that Belize does not have that kind of money to build those kinds of stadiums. True, we do not have the funds to replicate Reliant Center, Texas or Independence Park, Jamaica but we must find a way to make it happen if we truly want to compete on the world stage.

All I am saying is this, if we want to have excellent sports and people participation then we must put in the work to achieve it. Do what we see our neighboring counterparts have done to improve the quality of their games and the experience of the games. Sometimes you have to step back and take an honest accounting of what you are, what you have and what you must do to improve. It is up to us folks to either continue to settle for mediocrity or demand an opportunity for excellence.

(Signed) K. Berry