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Bernard staying away from schoolboy football
April 09, 2024
Highly-rated coach Ludlow Bernard is steadfast that he will be paying attention to reviving Harbour View's fortunes in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL), after stepping away from coaching duties with the Stars of the East, when the current season concludes next month.
According to Bernard, since his desire has become public, his telephone has been ringing constantly, with calls urging his return to schoolboy football, where he has won numerous trophies with his alma mater Kingston College and Wolmer's Boys' School.
"Schoolboy football is out of the picture for now. I won't really comment on that, although my phone has been ringing since the other day, but I have not answered because right now I just want to focus on Harbour View Football Club," he declared.
PRESSING CONCERNS
Bernard would not pinpoint a time of return to coaching, even though he doesn't plan to stay out of coaching indefinitely, but he insists there are currently more pressing concerns for Harbour View, and he is looking to assist on that level as much as possible.
"Our priority now is to ensure that we have a coaching staff in place that is ready to rumble as soon as the whistle goes for next season. That is going to be the task of the executive right now," Bernard stated.
He declined to confirm his second in command Sean Frazer's elevation to the top coaching position for next season, or what will be his new job description.
Bernard laughed candidly, "I won't answer that (if Frazer will step up) because we haven't discussed it yet."
He pointed to Harbour View's chairman Carvel Stewart on what will be his specific role there.
Stewart replied that no decision has yet been made on who will be the next coach or what will be Bernard's new role. He said they will take some time to put things in place before making any further public statements on the matter.
"When our business is not settled, I don't put it out. It will be settled, and we will have everything organised. I won't go there until things are settled and everybody is in place, so once we are settled everybody will know what we are doing," Stewart stated.
JPL CROWN
Bernard led the east Kingston-based Harbour View's coaching staff for the last five seasons and helped them to a fifth JPL crown after winning the title in 2022.
However, at the end of what has been a very disappointing season, where Harbour View finished 12th in the 14-team league, Bernard decided to step away for now.
His focus, he said, will be on developing young talent and trying to generate much-needed financial resources through sponsorship and player sales.
"I will be walking away from Premier League duties at least for now. There are other things in the Harbour View Football Club that we need to attend to," Bernard said.
"We need to build back our stadium. We need to put management systems in place, and we need to encourage sponsorship and of course, I am going to put myself in that position to ensure that that happens.
PET PROJECT
"Developing players is my pet project, so we will be looking at young talent. Today (Sunday) we brought on young Romario Gibbs and Zaire Douse, who we believe are two upcoming stars.
"We have a couple more we want to introduce, so going forward into the next season, we will get a good mix of youth and experience.
"Clearly, that is an area we will have to look at because we do not have many sources of income, so we will have to rely on sales of players," he reasoned.
Bernard added that it was a good spell in charge.
"It was five good seasons. We made the playoffs on three occasions. One season the competition was abandoned and this season we didn't make the playoffs, so it was a good run to add to my resume," he said.
