Blog Post
Juggle struggle. Football-loving Shuwayne yearns for full-time job, eyes engineering
Twenty-eight-year-old Shuwayne Miller of Arnett Gardens in St Andrew has one wish for Christmas: to become employed on a full-time basis.
Despite trying several avenues to land a full-time job, including pursuing an engineering programme at the Trench Town Polytechnic College some years ago after leaving Charlie Smith High School, he has not had much success.
“Mi did a study engineering ... . Mi did do two years in a it and then the teacher did stop because dem seh dem never did a pay him right, so mi never get fi finish mi course in a engineering,” Miller told The Gleaner.
He has, however, managed to secure gigs on construction sites but has not given up on his dream of becoming an engineer.
“Mi nah go seh mi is a tradesperson, but mi deh deh fi help out the real trademan,” he said, adding that although he has not mastered a trade, he assists with mixing cement and “help flash out [walls]”,
Miller is the winner of the inaugural Youth for Development Network (YFDN) U’TZ Championships Freestyle Keep-up and Freethrow Championship.
It is youth such as Miller, who Andre Wilson, founder of the YFDN, for whom said the football competition was created - marginalised males who have the potential to achieve greatness but feel they are stuck in the inner city.
“One of the things we have to acknowledge is that for young people that we serve, which are primarily from marginalised communities, [both] urban and rural, they need a platform to be able to evolve in the best way that will allow for them to be their true self and to emerge and bring about their creativity,” Wilson told The Gleaner.
He added: “We came up with an idea where we have this championship, which will allow for them to bring about their creativity. We want to remind young people that irrespective of what is happening, they can tap into their creativity, and find ways to do that.”
Wilson explained that the YFDN U’TZ Championship’s Freestyle Keep-up and Freethrow Championship was developed in recognition of November’s celebration of Youth Month and the 10th anniversary of YFDN.
Winning the YFDN U’TZ Championship’s Freestyle Keep-up and Freethrow Championship on November 21, out of 16 inner-city youth shortlisted, is something Miller never thought was possible, given that he really entered for the fun of playing football.
“A di ghetto we live ina so every little youth a go love football from them young, enuh, so mi was one a dem youth deh,” Miller told The Gleaner. “Mi feel great because mi never expect seh mi did a go win it.”
He said that better players from his community had entered the contest and he thought they would have outshone him.
“A youth weh live close by, him come up deh and dem man de dem can freestyle and thing. When mi even win it, him did a congratulate me and seh, ‘Mi tell yuh seh a you alone coulda compete wid me’,” he said, revealing that he spent time watching a few videos to sharpen his skills for the contest.
Miller received a cash prize of $20,000 and a weekend for two at Jakes Hotel Villas and Spa in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth.
