ALPART to Reinstate Norway Cup Football Programme

General Manager of Alumina Partners of Jamaica (ALPART), Darrel Harriman has indicated that his company would be reinstating the Norway Cup Football Programme.
He was speaking recently at the ALPART sport awards ceremony held at the company’s sports club, in St Elizabeth.
“We are pleased to be a part of the sports programme for areas around our plant. We are going to renew our commitment to the Norway cup participation by next year,” he said.
Mr. Harriman said the company had taken a step back over the past year to evaluate the effectiveness and benefit of the programme. “What we want to ensure going forward, is that we get the best students and athletes, so as to properly develop the human resource of this parish,” he said.
Through the Essex Valley football programme, many young persons from the parish have been selected to go abroad to play in what is regarded as one of the biggest youth competitions in the world – the Norway Cup.
The programme has been put on hold since 2002, when a Jamaican goalkeeper drowned in Norway.In his address at the function, President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Crenston Boxhill thanked ALPART for the very “tangible and visible” support that it had given to football over the years.Mr. Boxhill said the JFF was of the view that the current Essex Valley football programme was one of the best in Jamaica.
“It has given more international exposure to our youth than any other activity, especially in the area of football, and in the past three years it has produced no less than 10 players to the various national youth games and this is no ordinary feat,” he said.
Mr. Boxhill told the audience that the JFF was about to embark on its most “ambitious programme” to date.”We are now in the process of establishing a national football academy at Munro College in St. Elizabeth. This facility when completed will be able to accommodate groups of 40 or more players at a time, starting from the under 10 age group right through to the senior players,” he said.
“There will be high level training, counselling, psychology, academics and lots more. Of course we intend to return to our original partner ALPART for assistance in the development of this project,” Mr. Boxhill said.