While most football fans focus on popular players, famous leagues and tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, long-time Caymanian football coach Ernie ‘Gillie’ Seymour said none of the above would be possible without the proper marking of fields.
Although Seymour retired from the Department of Sports almost two years ago and recently announced he was stepping away from coaching his team – Cayman Athletic Sports Club – he continues to work on marking sporting fields across Cayman – something he has done for over 40 years.
“Out of the 17 football laws, Law 1 is the field play,” Seymour said. “Without the field, you cannot play the game and It is good for the younger generation to learn how to mark the field because Coach Gillie won’t be here forever.”
One of those within that younger football generation is Cayman’s national team captain Joshewa Frederick, who was at the Haig Bodden Stadium recently with Seymour to learn the craft of marking the field.
“I brought Joshewa along to give him a taste of what it’s like to mark one of these fields,” Seymour said. “It is very important to learn the markings, the proper measurements, but it all depends on what game is being played also.”
Seymour, 67, has painted lines on many football fields for domestic and international games, in addition to rugby 7s matches and for track and field at schools, on occasion, even taking special requests from individuals in the community.
He said marking a field from scratch can take him up to five hours to finish, and a task that has defeated men in their 20s, with many giving up before it is completed.
However, his mastery in field-marking had humble beginnings. He recalled times when there wasn’t even paint available to mark the fields.
“I started out doing it with coach Elbert [McLean],” Seymour said. “When we first started marking the fields at the Annex, we marked it with sand that we took from the jumping pit at George Town Primary School (now known as the Marie Martin Primary School).
“We would take the old wheelbarrow and use our hand to spread the sand along the line to make the lines but now we have a painting machine.”
Loss of an apprentice
These days, Seymour said that there aren’t a lot of youth that want to learn how to mark the field and some of those who took great interest have regrettably passed away.
“A couple of my sons are pretty good at it,” Seymour said. “We had a boy who was a real great help when we marked the fields, his name was ‘Bird’ Gerome Graham but when I lost Bird, I lost one of the best helpers when marking the fields.”
Graham was one of Cayman’s top footballers at the time of his passing in 2012, when he inexplicably collapsed during a practice session with Bodden Town FC and later died.
Seymour further said that his initial partner McLean, “got problems with his legs and he couldn’t do it anymore.
“I just continue to do it by myself and try to get some of these young boys to help out at times.”
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