Dear Editor,
In the best of times, youth sports (school and grassroots) are an afterthought, often struggling to receive vital support, but thanks to a few understanding and generous community partners – youth sports have time and time again proven their worth as an essential link to the regeneration process of sports development.
It is an indisputable fact that none of the major sports – hockey, squash, football, cricket, basketball, and others would be able to survive without an active nursery. But a sustainable nursery for sports could only come from organized school and grassroots programmes.
Yet, it boggles the mind to understand the neglect of youth sports – often an uphill battle, and as for girls’ participation, it is nothing short of a miracle that we still have women in sports. Here is where I would say, we badly need a “Title IX” Guyana legislation! Well, National Sports Policy.
Now comes the coronavirus pandemic, and only God knows what will remain of youth sports when the dust settles.
As a school and youth basketball administrator, I know firsthand how difficult it is to develop youth athletes. Before they ever make it to their first game, much less a national team, you have to undertake the most painstaking process of generating interest, persuading parents, teachers, and school administrators that sports is a good and useful complement for academic success and overall wellness. Could you imagine in the year of our Lord 2020, the case still has to be made as to the benefits and importance of school and youth sports. And this is just the beginning, you then have to beg for everything- equipment, uniforms, facility time. And after that, beg some more, as you try to convince sponsors that youth sports provide a greater and longer term value, even if it doesn’t show as a positive net gain in the short term on the company’s sales matrix.
Simply put, the importance of youth sports and the welfare of our nursery cannot be overstated or underestimated, especially now in this COVID-19 new normal. But it shouldn’t have to be this hard.
This is why I believe one of the highest priorities of the Sports Ministry is ensuring that the youth sports infrastructure is adequately supported, funded, and being developed.
Within the last four years, Guyana’s basketball had an unprecedented period of success. It started in 2016, with the hosting and second-place finish in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U 16 Boys Championships, continued in 2017, also with a second-place finish in the FIBA 3×3 Lesser Antilles Championships in St Lucia, and climaxed with us winning in historic fashion the 2018 senior men Championship in Suriname, while being captained by 18-year-old Stanton Rose, alongside three other outstanding teenagers. During the same period, Guyana also fielded women’s teams, largely made up of teenage girls.
These successes didn’t happen overnight, nor by chance. Credit must be given to Nigel Hinds for his personal commitment and aggressive pursuit in making Guyana a successful basketball brand during his tenure as President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF). But it must be equally noted that Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) has been laying the foundation for more than 10 years prior, which would have put Guyana basketball in the position to be successful.
Now, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the developmental trajectory for youth sports, not only for basketball but across all other sports disciplines. And while in YBG’S case we have decided not to rush a return to competitive basketball before the end of the first quarter of 2021. We have submitted a plan to the Ministry of Public Health- COVID-19 Task Force for consideration for our “Restart/Resocialization Training Programme” for schools and youth players.
We plan to partner with schools and community stakeholders to prepare and activate safe controlled spaces for school basketball activities to gradually return.
This is especially needed for school sports which are largely dependent on the generosity and sacrificial effort of a few willing volunteer coaches and teachers who see great value in creating these opportunities for our youth.
They will need now more than ever institutional (Government) and corporate (sponsorship) support in order to reboot.
To this end, we have identified 10 school/community facilities across 5 regions as potential restart clusters. We are now awaiting the approval of our “Restart Guidelines” from the Ministry of Public Health COVID-19 Task Force, and with the support of our community partners, we can then move ahead.
The plan is to sanitize and prepare these facilities, provide the required protective gear and materials, secure game equipment, and ensure that training clusters are staffed, managed, and maintained to COVID-19 preventative standards.
This way we can begin laying the groundwork for a safe return to active sports at the school/youth levels.
I think every day of those first and second form girls from Saint Stanislaus, Marian Academy, Queen’s College, and others, who were just beginning to blossom and whose development would have been stymied for almost two years, by the time it might actually be safe to play again.
Sadly, development for girls in sports is not as unstructured as it is for boys, boys will find a court, somewhere, and free play (scrubby) but girls need safe spaces and coaching.
I just hope that whenever we are able to return to active programming, youth sports would get the support it will need to survive and continue to grow. This is my sincere wish for all sports.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Bowman
