Building a legacy

PORTLANDERS FOOTBALL Club is on a mission – not just to invest in young men but to build the kind of football legacy that will be replicated and put Jamaica on the football map in a big way.

The club, formerly known as St George’s Football Club, based in Buff Bay, Portland, currently encompasses almost the entire parish of Portland, while also attracting boys from parts of St Mary, a neighbouring parish.

Currently, Portlanders Football Club is a franchise of the Jamaica Football Federation and has teams competing at various levels.

The club has teams playing at Tier II Premier level, under-20, under-17 and under-13 teams.

St George’s Football Club was taken over and incorporated in July 2018 by Dr Kingsley Chin, a board certified spinal surgeon, who lives in the United States but hails from Buff Bay and attended Titchfield High School.

In September 2018, he changed the name to Portlanders Football Club because of the vision to make it a parish-wide club.

Since taking over the club and changing its name to Portlanders Football Club, Dr Chin has poured resources into the team.

KIC Ventures, a US-based company, of which Dr Chin is founder and chief executive officer, has reportedly already invested some $20 million in the teams.

He has purchased a team bus to take the players to games across the island, provided all necessary gear and ensured that the members of the teams are provided for nutrition-wise.

He has also upgraded the Lynch Park in Portland where the teams train and put management structures in place to ensure that the team can function independently of him.

Dr Chin played football for Titchfield and represented Jamaica. He was given a football scholarship which took him to Columbia University in New York where he played collegiate football. He also attended Harvard Medical School where he became a doctor.

‘I OWE EVERYTHING TO FOOTBALL’

“I remember running about playing football barefooted and football is what took me to the United States. I owe everything I have become to football,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“My dream is to build a full football academy in Portland,” he said.

Dr Chin says he is giving back to Jamaica in this way because through football a start can be made to reclaim boys from the streets, who may potentially fall into a life of crime. He urges others in the diaspora, who can get involved in sports in Jamaica to do so, as this is another tangible way of giving back to the country.

“I believe that young men need male role models and football can provide such role models. I know when I played football for the parish at age 12, I looked up to the senior players with whom I came into contact. They became my role models and I believe that this can work for our young men today,” he said.

He envisions several of the players on Portlanders Football Club representing Jamaica or getting scholarships that could change their lives.

Portlanders Football Club have also entered into an unofficial agreement with Titchfield High through which young players from the club can join the school’s football programme.

Dr Chin paid tribute to Raymond Munzie Gordon as coach, Colin Mattis, the field manager, Brian Davis, assistant coach and player recruitment, and Leslie Phillips, transportation and food manager for their work in helping to develop and shape Portlanders Football Club.

Delano Smith, a 26-year-old member of the senior team that competes in the Tier II competition, said that he became involved with the team because of his brother, who was also a member.

“Right now we are rebuilding the team because some of the players who were in the team have left. What the management is trying to do is instilling discipline and putting into place structures and some people are resentful of the discipline,” he said.

Smith said that the club is being built around young players and he likes the atmosphere surrounding the team.

“I like the atmosphere. I like the team spirit being developed. We lost about 14 players but we are rebuilding. It is not an easy road, but we hope to make Portlanders Football Club a name in football in Jamaica,” he said.

According to Smith, the team is looking to be in the top four of the competition.

Junior Linder, a member of the under-20 team, who also spoke with The Sunday Gleaner, said he joined the club because he likes the direction in which it is going.

“I believe that if we continue as we are going, very soon we will have a great team representing the parish,” he said.

Linder said the club is building the kind of team spirit that will take it far in the future.

“We are developing as a team although we come from different parts of the parish. We have one goal and that is to make the club a success. We want to win and we can do so if we play as a team and do all the things that it takes to win,” said Linder.

According to Portlanders manager, Blake Brown, the club is the premier footballing organisation in the parish.

“We have teams from under 13 through to a senior team. Our senior team will be competing in the national Tier II competition which starts next week, April 22.

“At Portlanders, we emphasise true leadership at all levels on and off the field. It is with great humility that we are the standard-bearers for the great parish of Portland. I’m certain that we will continue our contribution to the development of football at the parish level and beyond,” said Brown.

According to Brown, since the club had been taken over by Dr Chin, the programme had been growing and all the necessary pieces for a successful programme were being put in place.

“We are on the right track and we will be making our mark on football in Jamaica.”