The Future of Belize Football in Good Hands
Good evening, I am Paul Lopez with this week’s edition of Sports Monday. It’s World Cup season and while you watch on to celebrate your favorite team or player, one teacher in the Cayo District is not only spectating. She is envisioning a future in which the children she mentors can one day make it on the World Cup stage.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Four years ago, Whitney Roches started a U-10 football team. Today, that move has evolved into a football league, Kick to the Future, with eight teams representing twenty-one different categories, from toddlers all the way up to teenagers. Roches and the aspiring superstars under her care are well on the way to turning a bold vision into reality.
Whitney Roches, Organizer, Kick to the Future League
“As a woman people don’t normally see a woman in leadership. At the beginning people were like, no she is too vocal, or she is a woman, what does she know about football. Did you play football? Now you got to explain your history or you got to stand firm and be like I am a woman but that does not mean I am not capable.”
Roches stands out among the men in the disciple. She has received her FFB Coaching D License and is pursuing her C License, elevating her coaching skills.
Whitney Roches
“I use to be the mom on the sideline but for some reason God keeps opening the door and opening door and I said to my committee listen, if God did not want us to be here, the doors would not be opening for four years. God sees our heart, children are his heritage. So he will keep opening the door, because he is using us for a greater purpose.”
And one purpose is to give back. Community service is at the heart of Roches’ operation. Over the weekend her committee hosted a marathon from which all proceeds went to the Cayo Cancer Care Society.
Shalue Butcher-Obrien, President, Cayo Cancer Care Society
“What can you say when an organization says we want to host a fundraiser and give you all the money raised? We want to be a part of this walk with other cancer patients in the community. We were extremely overwhelmed, especially when coming from a football organization with a lot of young kids. Whitney is that type of person when she does something she does it in excellence.”
Roches comes from generations of footballers and even as she admits her time on the pitch has long past, she firmly believes the next generation of footballers will raise the bar for Belize.
Whitney Roches
“So we must start from there and have children dream big from small. If you notice a lot of these players, they have been playing ball from they were two years old. I see the young guy from Mexico, the seventeen-year-old, he posted a picture in a Mexico jersey at three-year-old. It is like speaking it into existence, you know.”
And now for our weekly score highlights. The National Elite Basketball League’s finals is set. Over the weekend, the Defenders and the Running Rebels punched their tickets to $100,000 finals. The Defenders defeated the San Pedro Tiger Sharks in their best of three series, as did the Running Rebels against the Cayo Western Ballers. The Belize City Civic Center comes alive on Saturday for game one of the best of five series.
And in cycling news, the Cycling Federation of Belize hosted its 2026 Road Championship over the weekend. Many riders came out on top, multiple in the owned categories, under-twenty-three, junior youth and masters. But Derrick “Young Phenom” Chavarria ultimately stole the show, winning first place in the Men’s Elite Category.
In softball, we continue to follow the Marconi Leal Fastpitch Softball Tournament. The Bulldogs pummel the Rednecks, thirteen runs to one. Most of the weekend results followed a similar trend, winners dominated significantly.
Over the weekend, Bullock Island wrapped up its first-ever Summer Camp. The private island resort owned by former NBA player Reggie Bullock drew more than fifty children from Independence Village, Seine Bight, and Placencia for a full day of basketball training. Campers were ferried to the island by boat in the morning and spent the day rotating through ball-handling drills, passing and receiving exercises, shooting fundamentals, and 1-on-1 and 3-on-3 games. Well folks, that is all we have for you tonight in Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.