First Barbados-based session and first of the year out of the way, it was time to quite literally keep the ball rolling. Our next beneficiary in the line-up was St. Mary’s Primary School, located in the city, about a 20 minute walk from the central bus terminal.

I dropped by the Bridgetown-based school earlier in the week, hence my familiarity with the area. Our Wednesday session ready to go, I first caught a local bus into town, leaving promptly at 11:30 for our class at the school, scheduled for 1:00 PM.

“Is the fella coaching us football still coming on Wednesday?” the kids had been asking since earlier in the week, intel passed along by my contact, Rodney, an IT Specialist at the school.

The kids were stoked, as was I. Plus, with the wherewithal to drop gear off earlier in the week, I was thankful for the lesser load in tow on my half hour commute to the school. If it was any indication of my excitement, I arrived 30 minutes early for the session – seeing a bunch of familiar faculty faces and waiting patiently for Rodney’s arrival from his lunch break.

Once he had returned to the school, we headed up to the IT office, to retrieve the 25 inflated footballs to be used (and distributed) at the day’s session. Having only been in the coaching role for a few weeks after the untimely death of the team’s previous coach in October of 2024, Rodney sure was wearing the crown well. He had a military background, but didn’t want to overstep in that regard so that the kids would still enjoy playing. Still, though, instances would jump out from time to time, like him making the kids do star jumps (jumping jacks) for talking above his instructions.

Kids filing into our makeshift, oblong-shaped playing space, I instructed them to quickly pull on their socks and boots so we could get started ASAP. Doing his part, Rodney had the team’s leaders direct teammates through a dynamic stretching session to open up training – making sure they knew to touch upon every corner of the body before we opened up into the real stuff. Meanwhile, as we observed the stretching circle in front of us from our place on the sidelines, the kids’ gym teacher, Coach Blackman, helped count up participants to see how many were missing.

“Okay this one forgot his PE uniform,” she said. “That boy is absent today,” she added. Addressing the team, I chimed in, asking, “who else is missing?” It didn’t stop there. “Guys, raise your hand if you’re not here.”

The kids paused, then it hit them. They burst out laughing, as did I. Man, the oldest joke in the book, and it remained a classic! Five minutes of dynamic stretching out of the way, I drew the group in and Rodney turned to me, telling me I could take things over.

“Good afternoon!” I said.

“Good afternoon, Coach,” the kids said back, respectfully.

“Okay guys, so just as Coach Rodney here mentioned earlier, I run a football charity that has now held sessions just like this in 65 different countries with kids just like you.”

I had their full attention.

“And today, I’m gonna need your guys’ best behavior okay? If I have that, we’ve got some takeaway prizes for y’all.”

They nodded their heads in agreement. Still though, I needed to test their ears. “But what’s that again that I need?” I asked.

“Our best behavior!” they yelled out.

My speech continued. “Guys, I’m going to need these three things from you all: energy, respect, and attention.” It was the same old song and dance.

Still, I had them repeat them back, just to make sure the list had sunk in.

My instructions went on. “Okay guys, I mentioned earlier that communication was going to be a key theme today, so we’re gonna start with a listening drill. Y’all partner up please for me!” It was time to really get things moving.

We immediately jumped into our trademark listening drill, led by myself, then some members from the group, including a tall girl named Cassidy – the only girl in the bunch. There had been some interest in football in the past on the girls’ side with as many as three players on the team in years’ prior, but that number had dropped off recently. Still though, it was great to see Cassidy present, holding her own against the boys. After each round, the kids jumped and squealed with joy.

“Coach! I won!”

“Look Coach, I just won twice in a row. I’m two for two!”

Then, each kid was instructed to grab a football. Mind you, everyone immediately reached for the odd footballs out, the black and red Fulham (size 5) footballs.

I stopped things quickly, telling them that yes, at the end of the session, they’d each be leaving with a ball, but as for the three Fulham balls, those would have their new owners selected by way of a competition. Once everyone was in agreement, we moved into a dynamic warmup drill, having the kids all get some touches in our irregularly shaped grid, then pausing for toe touches, ball slides, and then “popcorn” – a variation that saw players throwing the ball high into the air before trapping the bouncing ball with the bottom of their foot (making a “pop” noise like popcorn).

After, we moved into our dribbling drill where at the whistle they’d stop the ball with whatever body part I instructed them to.

“Hand!” I yelled out. Everybody reached down to hold the ball with their hands. “Okay now that’s a yellow card for all of you guys,” I joked. They removed their hands immediately. “I’m joking y’all! But remember, no hands in football!” Rodney flashed me a smile.

After that, I paused for a water break while some players helped set up relay races – three teams in a 6, 6, 5 breakdown for our 17 participants. Stepovers, dribbling, and sole of the foot dribbles, we ran through them all.

“What part of the foot is this?” I asked the group, before moving into the sole of the foot dribbles.

“The right!” a boy yelled.

“Correct, but not quite…” I said.

“It begins with an S,” I hinted.

“The sole?” said one of our 11 year olds, timidly but correctly.

Next up? Our kangaroo drill, and I sensed the kids knew exactly what was coming.

“Oh no… now we gotta hop don’t we, Coach…” they said, reservedly.

“Yup!” I yelled out.

Relay races successfully raced, we broke into three technical grids led by our goalkeeper (a tall, older lad), myself, and Coach Blackman. The clock now at 1:53 for our session scheduled to wrap up by 2, I drew the group in to pose a question.

“Alright guys, remember what I said about those black and white footballs? Raise your hands if you remember.”

“Coach, you said we’d have to win a challenge to get one.”

“Have we done any challenges yet guys?” I asked.

“Nope, not yet.”

You know how this story ends.

“We’re gonna play one now guys. I need a half-moon, a semi-circle!” I yelled out.

“It’s called head it, catch it. But of course it’s not that easy. When I say head it, you gotta catch it with your hands. And so when I say catch it, what are you guys gonna do?” I asked.

“Head it!” said our goalkeeper, gesturing his head forward in a heading motion.

I ran our first round as participants giggled and cheered, advancing from each level to the next.

I paused things, ever-so-briefly. “Okay I need your guys’ eyes on me because I can do this, or I can do this!” I said, throwing the ball at an unsuspecting customer, avoiding direct eye contact in doing so.

“Miss, that’s not fair! He wasn’t looking at me when he threw it,” cried our victim.

“Y’all, what did I just say!?”

With only three participants left, I turned to Rodney who had a comment from the outside looking in.

“This is a real good drill, Stephen,” he said. “Because it’s like their minds are working hard, but they need to make sure their bodies work just as hard to perform the right (opposite) command.”

I grabbed a winner, a young man I had seen outside the principal’s office on Monday, named Nahiem. I gave him a high five, to which he returned back with a smile, before letting him know he could very well participate in the next round, but couldn’t win a second time. He nodded his head politely… he was a good kid that’s for sure.

Next, I tossed the ball to Coach Blackman and allowed her to run the next round.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Positive!” I said, I was in desperate need of water with the hot sun burning me to a crisp.

“Guys, real quick I’m going to get some feedback. Did y’all have a favorite part?”

“Head it, catch it,” said a younger boy.

“Was that one too difficult for you guys?” I asked.

“A bit, but we liked the challenge!” said another boy.

“What about you, what was your favorite part?” I asked one of our U7 players with his hand raised.

“Everything, Coach!” he said.

“Now, that’s a great answer!” I yelled out.

A couple more hands shot up. “What’d you like?” I asked. “Everything.” “Same!” said another.

“Okay guys, how about things you didn’t like?”

“Nothing!” said my loyal fans from the first question.

“Now guys, if you can recall, when we first started the session I asked you guys for three things. Can someone name one?”

“Respect,” said one of the older boys, the team captain.

“Energy,” said Nahiem, from the back row.

“Listening?” said another participant, a bit shyly.

“Great answer but not quite…” I said.

“Good behavior?” said another.

“Communication?”

They were hitting me with great responses, but you know my mind only had one on it.

“Attention!” said a young fella sitting next to Nahiem.

“Perfect guys. Respect, energy and attention.”

My questions continued. “Now… do you guys think y’all gave me those three things in today’s session?” I asked.

“Yes, Coach,” they answered confidently, and without pause.

“I think so too, guys, give yourself a round of applause,” I added.

I walked them through our take home prizes before inviting the three prizewinners ahead to claim their special, Fulham FC footballs.

Then, partnered back up, I handed out Barbados-colored bracelets while participants helped each other tie them around their wrists.

With the group now standing in front of me, ready to return back to their classrooms for the last hour of school, new footballs in tow and new bracelets on their arms – Rodney left them with one last instruction.

“Okay guys, I need you all to say thank you to Coach Stephen.”

“Thank you, Coach Stephen,” they repeated.

“And safe travels,” Rodney said.

“Safe travels!” the kids said.

The gesture was affectionate and sweet, but it wasn’t without one last cherry on top. Cassidy approached me with a blue bag on her wrist.

“On behalf of St. Mary’s Primary School Football Club, we would like to thank you for coming to visit us and helping us train today.”

“Thank you Cassidy,” I responded, eager to tear open the bag but holding off for the sake of politeness.

Program all wrapped up, I headed up to Rodney’s air conditioned office to cool off until the end of school, as he had promised to drive me back home for the 30 minute trip to Oistins. We chopped it up more about football and my Tuesday session with RF Prime Academy. More about the national team landscape, and especially, about St. Mary’s promising young footballers. Rodney was passionate, but practical too.

“You see, Coach,” he said. “We only get these kids for a short amount of time. And so, we just have to try to make the game as fun as possible for them. Then, one day, they’re going to move on to another team and another coach. And we have to hope that that coach does just the same, if not more – to foster the love these kids have for football.”

His teaching pillars were simple ones. He, like many, understood that passion for the sport is far more important than ability at this point. And especially after hearing about some of the trends of interest in the sport from Coach Richard the other day, it was comforting to see individuals like Rodney and Coach Blackman making sure that that flame of love for footy wouldn’t burn out any time soon. Eager to collect his own feedback, Rodney posed a question.

“So, Stephen, how was the session for you? I can see from your runny nose that the heat and dirt from our field got the best of you,” he said, with a chuckle.

I smiled. “Really good, Rodney. The kids have a very solid foundation thanks to you and they were extremely well-behaved.”

On the way out, staff members were quick to offer a word of thanks or a “good afternoon” much like the kids. I couldn’t help but smile seeing some of our participants still kicking their new footballs around on the school grounds, long past both our final whistle and the final bell of the school. Another boy stopped me on my way out. “Mr. Carter?” he said, drawing Rodney’s attention. “Is this the football coach?” he asked.

I nodded my head. “Coach, is it true you went to 64 countries to teach football?”

“65 now, young man!” I said, with a wink. 65 now…