The curtains came down on the NBD Primary Schools Football Championship on Wednesday April 27, 2016 at Benjamin’s Park in Portsmouth. The final match of the season was played, the final goal scored. The championship was held over a four-month period and impacted over 800 students from 52 schools around Dominica.
The National Bank of Dominica Ltd (NBD) held an Awards Ceremony immediately after the final match where the winning schools were awarded with trophies and a cash donation, while the District Champions were each recognized with a medal.
The last teams standing were:
St. Mary’s Primary School – Champion of the Primary Schools Boys Tournament
Woodford Hill Primary School –Champion of the Primary Schools Girls Tournament
North East District – Champion of the Primary Schools District Tournament
Mr. Trevor Shillingford, Sports Co-coordinator in the Ministry of Sports emphasized the importance of the championship. “The impact of this football championship cannot be overlooked for we are providing boys and girls in our sporting landscape with a new experience that is football. Football on a national scale will be better for these experiences.”
He went on to say “I therefore take this opportunity to urge the Dominica Football Association to come onboard. Put structures in place in order to provide continuity of what has already started here.”
Mr. Shillingford extended thanks to the NBD. He explained, “not only did the Bank make available funding but they were true partners in the execution of the Games in terms of logistical support and promotion.”
Mrs. Suzanne Piper, Executive Manager, Marketing and Product Management of NBD said that the Bank invests in various educational and developmental programmes geared towards the youth. “Our hope for this initiative is that it will inspire our children to improve their skills in the sport of football and aspire to excel at the game, thus improving overall performance in football in Dominica, which will open up avenues for our young sportsmen and women to pursue their passion regionally and internationally.”
She further applauded the efforts of the Sports Division and other stakeholders for successfully executing the 2016 Championship.
NBD contributed $15,000 to the Championship. The Bank has been supporting this initiative for the past seven years.
Great job NBD. Your support for the young students is greatly appreciated. It is good that a corporate entity like you can give back to the communities. Any money given in this hard economic time is a difficult feat so thank you on. Cudos also to the Sports Division on organizing such a huge tournament.
Congratulations to all!
I saw a very weak display of football from the girls competition. The boys competition was very impressive. I want to let the sports coordinator know that the girls nbd sponshorship money should have been spent teaching our young girls the fundamentals of the game of football. Running a league just for the sake of saying you have a girls league is total rubbish. Shame on nbd too because they could demand that the sponsorship money is put to better use. Don’t it more sense that our young girls learn the sport before having a league.
On another note, my daughter was removed from the boys league that she has always played with and told about a girls amalgated team. Seems the league has come and gone. So essentially my daughter was removed and was unable to play a sport she loves and has been training for since 5 years.
One day Dominica will have competent people at the reign, you guys make a mess of the simplest thing