Shashanya Production is a non-profit organization serving South Florida which is one of the most culturally diverse areas with a large population of Jamaican people.  Shashanya Productions was founded by Michael Barnes in 1999. His motivation was based on a longtime love of the game along with a vision to help promote soccer in the communities.

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Michael Barnes

President of Shashanya Productions

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Michael started playing soccer at age six (6) in Jamaica. The first organized soccer he played was at New Day All Age School. At the age of 13 years old, he came to the United States. He helped organize the club Real Caribe in 1973, in Queens N.Y., which is still in existence today. In high school, he was All American, and then recruited to Long Island University in Brooklyn.  While attending Long Island University, he was contacted by the German team, Eintracht Frankfurt (second division team) where he played for years. He went to Jamaica on a soccer tour in 1984, played games against Waddah of MoBay, Reno of Westimoreland and Jamaica Invitation Eleven. Michael was invited to join Jamaica’s national team but decide to return to Germany. After a knee injury, he retired from the pros and returned to New York, where he underwent rehabilitation for a year. He began playing for Real Caribe Soccer Club again and then moved to Florida in 1993 where he found soccer was not popular in the Caribbean community. To build up the interest in soccer within South Florida, he started two tournaments a year, Caribbean Classic and Copa Caribana under Shashanya Productions and expanded Shashanya Productions to offer a soccer league, Jamaica Selection Olympic Program and Jamaica Training Camp organized exclusively for the Reggae Girlz in 2018.