JFF reiterates importance of protecting minors

With increased reports of coaches and sports managers being brought to book on allegations of abuse against their charges, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is using its present coaching course to reiterate the importance of protecting minors. According to the federation, as a request from title sponsors JMMB,  the module titled “Safeguarding our Children in Sport” is now a permanent module in the timetable of its Advanced Level 1 Coaching Education Programme.

The modules include ethics of football coaching, fitness development theory, the female athlete, anatomy, planning and preparing training sessions, sports medicine, bio-mechanics and technical and tactical development. 
Just last month, Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison told Radio Jamaica Sports that there has been an increase in reports of abuse against athletes at the hands of their coaches and sports managers.

It's against that background that JFF General Secretary Dalton Wint says the decision to include the module on safeguarding children in sports was an easy one. The coaching course which began on February 1 is being held in the South Central Zone across weekends in Manchester, St Elizabeth and Clarendon.

Lecturer at UTech's Caribbean School of Sport Sciences Laurence Garriques explained that the coaches are not only trained in how to spot problems but also what their responsibilities are as it relates to minors in their care. The course ends on March 8.