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Weeks
The Soccerologist
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
They call him football lawyer yet he prefers to
be known as soccerologist (self-coined nomenclature for the scope of
expertise). That is about Beauford Oliver Weeks, candidate for Vice
President for Operations of the Liberia Football Association (LFA).
In times like these when football authorities are
going to the polls to give a new mandate to their leaders, Weeks sees
himself as the one that could ably replace Pennoh W. Bestman, who is
the only one vying for the post of Vice President for Administration.
Though being opposed by the former St. Anthony FC
President Adolph Lawrence, Weeks’ approach and campaign strategies
have proven that he would surely win the VPO slot.
Currently an Executive Committee Member of the LFA,
Weeks has made his campaign appear like he is already performing in
the job he is contesting for. For this, voters seem not be confused
about giving him a four-year tenure.
Born on May 8, 1959 in Monrovia, Weeks has been eating,
living and playing football. To him, the game is worth dying for in
that the round leather object is all he dreams about.
This is a man whose presence and impact have touched all
aspects of football. Weeks played and coached in the game. He
subsequently served as club boss and even organized a youth soccer
academy in the country.
The aspiring LFA Vice President for Operations is blessed
with vast knowledge in the area of Coaching (with emphasis on
application of the scientific approach), Strategic Planning and
Program Management, Human Resource Development as well as Technical
and Organizational Administration.
Married with two children, in 1986, he obtained a Master of
Science degree in Marine/Environmental Geology with emphasis on
Coastal Engineering Sedimentology, Department of Earth Science
(Geology and Oceanography), University College Swansea.
Before then, the Soccerologist in 1983 graduated from
the University of Liberia with Bachelor of Science degree in Geology,
Department of Geology, Division of Engineering, College of Science and
Technology.
Weeks acquired primary and secondary educations from
the once famous Monrovia Demonstration Elementary School and St.
Patrick’s High School respectively.
Presently the President of the St. Joseph Warriors Sports
Association, Weeks has the task of overseeing the administration of
the club and its participation in the LFA Second Division National
League Season.
As Representative of the Liberia Old-timers National
Association (LNOA) on the Executive Committee of the LFA, he has been
serving to support the execution of policies and the planning and
implementation of programs for football governance and development in
Liberia. On the Executive Committee, Weeks occupies the chairmanship
of the LFA Standing Committee on Technical Development.
He oversees the technical development planning and
activities with emphasis on programs to enhance the adoption of
improved methods of training teams, upgrade the quality of coaches and
technical personnel, and the recruitment and evaluation of coaches of
the national football teams.
He presides over a Coaches Working Group that is laying
the groundwork for the development of the LFA Coaching Platform, which
is a Football Coaches Development Plan that will cover development
steps, education and related curricula and course manuals, the
surveying of coaching practitioners and the development of a coaches
categorization and licensing scheme.
He took the lead in facilitating a participatory planning
process for the Restructuring of the National Football Team and
compelled the Team Liberia Blue Print, a document on the proposed new
organizational structure and guidelines for the national football team
and strategies for elite players’ development and the international
competitions program as a 10-year Football Development System Plan.
He developed concepts and plans for an Inter-District Youth
Football Tournament as the critical activity under a proposed Liberia
Football Zones and County Sub-Associations Development (ZOCO-SUBA)
Project.
Between 2000 and 2001, Weeks was the Co-Chairman of the
LFA Youth Football Committee. There, he assisted the Committee in the
planning and implementation of locally appropriate youth football
development activities and drafted the “Proposed Planning Framework
for the LFA Youth Football Development Program.”
For 1998 to 2000, as Member of the LFA Youth Football
Committee, he participated in the review of the draft proposal for the
LFA Generation (Youth) Football Program.
On February 7, 2000, as Course Instructor, the LFA Vice
Presidential Candidate planned and organized a course to assist in the
training of local coaches in methods for the development of football
techniques and tactics, under the auspices of the Tabellah Africa
Associates International Soccer Academy (TAISA) Inc., in collaboration
with the LFA. He compiled research materials and the LFA-Tabellah I
Course Manual, and presented lectures on course content, based on the
FIFA/Coca-Cola World Football Development Programme-Futuro I Course.
Weeks became President of LONA from 1998 to 2001 and
provided organizational leadership in administering the activities of
old-timers’ football associations in Liberia through LONA-an affiliate
member of the LFA. He served as member of the 1999 LFA Congressional
Committee on the Review of the LFA Statutes.
In his capacity as LONA’s General Captain and
Coordinator from 1996 to 1998, Weeks chaired the Technical
Organization Committee and provided leadership in the implementation
of LONA 1997 Football League Season and facilitated coordination
between the Executive Committee and Member Associations.
He was the Technical Manager and Head Coach of
St. Joseph Warriors. Weeks planned and managed the club’s technical
program in the LFA Second Division, supervised training sessions,
players’ recruitment and performance upgrading and spearheaded the
execution of the club’s technical obligations to the LFA National
League from 1999 to 2001.
As Assistant Coach of the same club between 1988
and 1989, Weeks assisted the head coach in maintaining players’
fitness and executing technical and tactical drills to upgrade team
performance.
Since 1994, he has been a member of the Liberia
Football Coaches Association (LIFOCA), a national association of
football coaches practicing in the country and an affiliate member of
the LFA. In 2000-2001, he served as Acting Vice President for
Operation and spearheaded the achievement of the Saturday morning
regular (weekly) training sessions/weekly meetings of LIFOCA.
At the moment, Weeks is the Executive Director of TAISA,
a non-profit, non-governmental, private volunteer organization with a
vision towards building a soccer academy in Liberia.
In 2001, he was President of the TAISA Football Club
and is now Youth Football Coach of TAISA, Inc.
The LFA Executive Committee Member served as Vice
Chairman of the Independent (Old-timers) Sports Association (ISA) from
1994 to 1998. Previously, Weeks held the Team Manager of ISA post for
five years (1989-1994).
His sojourn as a player took him to the University of
Wales, where he was a member of the UC Swansea Varsity Football Team
from 1987 to 1988. At the University of Liberia, Weeks participated in
the Seventh West African University Games in Yamassokro, Cote d’Ivoire
(semifinals).
Between 1982 and 1986, Weeks was a First Division
player with the St. Joseph’s Warriors. In both 1985 and 1986, he and
the Warriors were league runners-up.
He won the league titles twice in 1979 and 1980 and the
knockout crown (1979) with the Invincible Eleven (IE).
In the Liberian second division, Weeks played for
Liberia Amateur Limited (LAL, 1976-1977) and the IE Majestic Football
Club (1974-1975).
From 2004 to now, he has been a part of the England FA
Learning Program for Coaching Courses. In 2004, he was a registered
learner in the Online Soccer Star College Course, refreshing knowledge
and reviewing the fundamentals of football coaching for children. In
2005, he became a registered learner in the Online Soccer Parent
Course. His credentials were thereafter accepted and admission
approved for the 2006 Level 3 residential training course for the
International License/UEFA B award.
Weeks took part in the FA/CAF Strategic Planning
Workshop for Coaches held in Lagos, Nigeria in 2002.
In 1999, he benefited from the FIFA/Coca-Cola
World Football Education Program Training Course-Futuro II held at the
SKD Sports Complex.
The LFA Candidate partook in the Third West and Central
Africa Regional Training Workshop in 1999 in Ogun State, Nigeria. He
got a certificate in Advanced Football Coaching in the 1994 in the
Futuro I Course.
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