Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
MAXWELL
MUCH-TRAVELLED coach Geoffrey Maxwell will start duties as head coach of the Waterhouse Football Club this Sunday when they play Harbour View in their Red Stripe Championship Cup quarter-final at the National Stadium.
Maxwell, who has been appointed to the post for the remainder of the season, left the same club two years after taking it to the NPL title in 1998.
Maxwell, who has spent time in charge of eight current NPL clubs, was welcomed back at Drewsland by Waterhouse president Peter Hibbert yesterday.
"We can do good for Geoffrey and he can do good for us," Hibbert said.
The post of Waterhouse head coach was tragically opened when former national player and coach Peter Cargill, who had taken Waterhouse to two end-of-round finals this season, died in a bus accident on his way to a game in Montego Bay.
Initially, it was thought that coach Carl Brown, who had been seen at Waterhouse talking to players, was going to be the man at the helm, however, there have been indications that Brown could be taking up a job abroad.
Max Straw, who was the interim coach after Cargill's untimely death, will go back to duties as an assistant.
"Geoffrey believes Max will be invaluable to him going forward," Hibbert told The Gleaner.
Hibbert has also pointed out that the former national coach is well loved in the community and the team's sponsors have embraced the move.
"We have deliberated, we have had discussions with our sponsors and we did take morality into consideration in making our decision," he said, alluding to a one-year spell in jail Maxwell was sentenced to on a fraud charge.
"Geoffrey has expressed to me that his greatest wish is to come back to Waterhouse with a solid structure which he didn't have here before ... he had to do every and anything," Hibbert said.
Despite Hibbert's apparent faith in Maxwell, his tenure at the club is only guaranteed to the end of the season.
"We are going to be using the services of Geoffrey Maxwell in the short term. We have an arrangement until the end of the season, after which his performance will be evaluated," Hibbert said. "That doesn't hinge on winning the championship, although that is what we are going for, but it is more in terms of his working attitude with the present set of players," he said. Maxwell's official appointment is to be announced at a 10:00 a.m. press conference at the Hilton Kingston Hotel today.
Attempts to get in touch with Maxwell last night proved unsuccessful.
