|-- THE BEST SPORTS DEBATE IN BERMUDA --|

35 goals is out of reach

James Whittaker
Is it possible for a Premier Division striker to get 35 goals? That was the challenge thrown down by Coolridge Bell — who set the total in the 70s. Hamilton Parish striker Jamie Smith, who has had a fantastic start to the season, and has targeted the trophy and $1,000 top prize. But it seems like an unrealistic target. Even the strikers that play in the Martonmere, the Charity Cup and the Dudley Eve will get a max of 29 games. And the new FA Cup format means they won’t get the chance to run-up a cricket score against a lowly Commercial B side. With an eight-team Premier Division, Bermuda’s top strikers will play at least six games less than Bell did when he set the record. It might be more realistic to take an equivalent goals-for-fames ratio and set a target of 25. That would still be tough but it’s an acheivable enough total to make the challenge worthwhile.

FA Cup changes - good or bad?

James Whittaker
Will the change in the FA Cup format take away the magic of the cup? The decision to allow Premier Division sides to sit out the opening rounds definitely reduced interest in the early stages. I can understand the BFA wanting the big clubs in the quarter-finals but part of the excitement of the old format was that the Premier sides could take each other out and pave the way for a team like Hamilton Parish in 04 or Colts in 07 to break through and reach the final or even win the tournament. Now there isn’t going to be too much difference between the FA Cup and the Friendship tournament – the same teams we see week-in week-out playing off for the title.

Opportunity declined

Don Burgess
The Gazette reports today that cricketer Marcus Johnson is headed back to Bermuda after spending just four days at the fabled University of Trinidad's Academy of Sport and Leisure High Performance Unit. Earlier this year six girls had been given $20,000 soccer scholarships in the U.S. and by the first weekend, five of them had returned home. And it's happened before. It helps lead to the perception that Bermudian youth are soft. We want our young people to succeed, but when we see them not lasting a weekend, it just leaves us shaking our heads. Part of becoming a better sportsman is the mental game - mental toughness. These teenagers didn't have it. Maybe the sporting groups didn't prepare them well enough as to the cultural changes; maybe the parents should have told them to stick it out for a month first before being so quick to allow them to come home. Bermuda coach hailed Johnson as a trailblazer and how he did would affect the future relationship. From this standpoint, it couldn't have gone any worse.

What will happen to the swimming pool?

Don Burgess
Get out a pair of scissors and get ready to punch a couple of wholes in your belts. With Finance Minister Paula Cox mentioning that with the current economic crises looming, Government will be cutting back on expenditures — and in particular, on capital projects.
One of the first victims of all this belt tightening could be the long proposed swimming pool at the National Centre. The $20 million project may not seem like a necessary item in this skim-backed time, but Bermuda still needs an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Sports Minister El James as far back as February has been promising the pool will get built and built soon. He re-affirmed that in September so let's hope that it isn't cut from the budget next year.
But also just as important, many sporting bodies are already privately wondering if their grants will be cut or if the money just won't be available for special projects. The pessimist in me says many will have to be prepared to deal with a bit of pain in 2009.

Upset special: Is the Premier Division wide open?

James Whittaker
All pre-season predictions are off the table after some funky results in the opening weekend of Premier Division action. PHC’s title defence immediately faltered against Boulevard, the Dandy Town revival took a huge hit from Devonshire Cougars and new boys Hamilton Parish and Southampton Rangers defied critics who said they would be the league’s whipping boys with encouraging results. Perhaps the most intelligent pre-season prediction came from Village midfielder Keith Jennings, who told the Bermuda Sun on Friday that this would be one of the most competitive seasons in recent years. Who do you think will win the league and who will go down? Has the opening weekend changed your view?

Andrew deserves a chance

James Whittaker
If anyone deserves a shot as a full-time coach on the BFA payroll then it’s Andrew Bascome. Whether it ends up being as senior coach or as youth director, Bascome has earned the right to be there. He’s coached virtually every club on the island and worked wonders with his own youth academy. The dreadlocked guru has also been a mentor to more players than he cares to remember, including the island’s most famous football export Shaun Goater. He’s been coaching kids for nothing but the love of the game for more than 25 years and would like to take his skills to the next level in Bermuda’s new academy set-up. Let’s hope the BFA grant him his wish.

Young talent

James Whittaker
It’s extremely encouraging to see two talented young players like Tre Ming and Zeiko Lewis getting the opportunity to go and train with English Premier League side’s Portsmouth and Fulham. Too often we’ve waited till a player is in his 20s to try and get them into a professional environment overseas. The harsh facts are that players like Stevie Astwood, Kwame Steede and Damon Ming have bags of talent but are simply too old for any club to take a chance on them. Any Academy coach will tell you that once a player is older than 16 their chances of being taken on by a professional club reduce dramatically. So it makes sense to be sending our best 14 and 15-year-olds to overseas Academies. A couple more players, like Reggie Lambe at Ipswich, getting experience in the right environment would be great for them and great for Bermudian football.