Central FC veteran midfield ace maestro Marvin Oliver, many believe, can possibly still make the national senior men’s team at age 39.
But even if that doesn’t turn out to be, the former US-based player could still have the opportunity to work with a national team as a coach someday. Oliver is among a group of local coaches who passed the recent CONCACAF ‘D’ License course staged by the T&T Football Association (TTFA). He received his coaching certificate last week from the local governing body after undergoing the course conduced by CONCACAF instructors Lenny Lake and Andre Waugh and subsequently passing the “D” license examination at the TTFA offices at the Hasely Crawford Stadium a few weeks ago. It is likely he will serve as a coach at the reigning Pro League champion club but he is also eying a call to national coaching duty as well.
“It’s been an eye opening experience for me working with the instructors and the youngsters,” Oliver said. “We tend to pay attention to the adult aspect of development and always want the finish product and not be involved in the starting of the product. For me it is more enjoyable coaching the youths. “The instructors were of the highest level and they brought a whole lot of wisdom and understanding on how to deal with kids. One of the key aspects for it was letting us know that the game itself is the greatest teacher at that age. The way the instructors presented the course to us was a stand out. They allowed us to individually grow into it and see the whole picture of coaching at that level.” Oliver said he was grateful for the opportunity put forward by the TTFA with the staging of the course. “I feel it was great to see the TTFA partnering with Concacaf and bringing the course to us. I always feel it’s really good that the players who are involved in the Pro League now and who understand the mechanism of the players currently in the country to be involved in coaching. And with players like myself, Hector Sam, Kerry Baptiste and Joel Gibbons, if we can continue expanding our knowledge on the coaching side, who knows one day we can go on to working as a coach with the national senior team or one of the national youth teams,” Oliver said.