Sports Development in Treasure Beach and University of the West Indies (Mona)

Kingston--Jamaica welcomed the launch of two new sport development facilities last week.  The first happened in an open field in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth and the second took place at the University of West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, St. Andrew.

Although Usain Bolt is bringing world attention to Jamaica's sporting abilities, both developments have been planned for years. 

With the international success of their soccer, netball, cricket, bobsled and track and field teams, there’s a movement in Jamaica to help nurture the raw talent on the island by improving and creating new sports infrastructures.



At the ribbon cutting for the new Regupol track at UWI, Olivia Grange, the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, said “what is so wonderful about Jamaica is that our communities are so rich in talent.  A country that has talent, that has a tradition and where our young athletes are prepared to train hard. To me the sky’s the limit and we can only go from strength to strength.

“We want to offer our training facilities to the world,” Grange continued.  She spoke of expanding and upgrading the G. C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sports, in St. Catherine, which was the first college in the English-speaking Caribbean dedicated to training teachers, coaches and sports administrators and said, “we’re looking at the Trelawny stadium as being the center of sports tourism and major events.” 

Grange cited an example of future sports development in the annual high school track and field championships. “We’re going to visit every secondary school to see what the facilities are for their training in sports," she said.  "We’re going to ensure that they all have coaches, our primary schools have coaches and that the infrastructure through the sports development foundation is brought up to a standard that will allow them to train and further excel when they come to boys’ and girls’ champs.”

TREASURE BEACH

Russhane Dawkins and Jason Henzell

In the seaside area of Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth is the small district of Sandy Bank.  It’s a community where most people farm or fish.  St. Elizabeth is known as the food basket of Jamaica because the parish provides 80% of the country’s vegetables and food.

Driving to Treasure Beach, I noticed that every home, business, church, school and funeral ground has a patch of land in the front yard devoted to farming.  The soil of the area is so rich it’s maroon.  Neatly lined rows of major crops such as: scallion, cabbage, scotch bonnet pepper, melon, carrots and thyme peak out of the ground.  A few young people mill about on a corner but I can tell even they won’t make it a regular past time.  They’re in motion for somewhere else.          

But on a windy Sunday afternoon, the ground of 15 acres of land was broken for a new sports development complex for Treasure Beach.  The field is filled with Lignum Vitae and Macca trees.  The Vitae’s purple leaves and the Macca's prickles filter the ground already covered with goat dung and ants nest.  It’s the perfect place to set up a hammock and go to sleep.  


Instead 200 people gathered to celebrate the ground breaking for one of the restrooms to the future development; everyone has to be free to play and work.

In 1998, the nonprofit BREDS (short for Brethren) organization was formed.  The group hopes to promote education, sports, cultural heritage and emergency healthcare to all the districts which comprise Treasure Beach.  Having assisted schools in the community by upgrading the Sandy Bank Basic and Primary Schools in building a playground, creating extra classrooms, secure fencing, paving a driveway, creating a rainwater catchment and storage system, and installing new classroom furniture, the organization now wants to tackle sports in a more long term manner. 

“We’ve always just provided basic level coaching, training, uniforms and football to anyone who was really interested,” said Jason Henzell co-founder of BREDS and Chairman of Jakes resort in Treasure Beach.  “What we want to do now is refocus and look at the younger youth and put in more of a sports development program.  So you could almost say we’re being proactive instead of reactive.”

The sport park and community center will consist of a cricket and soccer pitch that will double as a track.  There will be tennis, basketball, netball, volleyball courts and a children’s playing area.  The facility will also have a community center that will have training programs, workshops and local meetings.

The area Member of Parliament for Southwest St. Elizabeth and also the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr. Christopher Tufton attended the event (before he left to play in a cricket match) along with former members of parliament, school principals and other community dignitaries. “It is progress,” said Tufton.  “It is the concept that this sports park has added value to features of this community.  It will enhance what is already here and as a consequence will add to the attractiveness that is here.”

The most obvious end results of sports are playing contract and goal medals, but Henzell envisions a sports development which will nurture children’s athletic and academic talent.   “It’s more than just sports,” he said.  “It’s leadership, it’s motivation, it’s enthusiasm, it’s spirit.

“A lot of these kids come from very poor background but especially with boys if you can teach them through exposure then that’s how you bring them in.  If you can inspire them and expose them that’s how you’re gonna get their attention. 

"If you just sit in a classroom it’s the worse thing.  These boys have so much energy and I can relate to that because I really honestly was a below average student academically and now last week I did a course at Oxford, so learning is about timing and mentorship and inspiration.”

Russhane Dawkins, 19, has lived all his life in Sandy Bay.  He went to Sandy Bank primary and high school and played center/midfield on Treasure Beach United, one of Jamaica’s major league soccer teams. 

Sandy Bank is an area where most men traditionally became farmers or fishermen.  Dawkins’s father has been a fisherman for 20 years.  But recently men have been moving into construction work or driving a taxi.  However, Dawkins was going to pursue a completely different career path.  He envisioned upgrading his level two electrical installation certificate to a level three, and applying to the country’s electrical company for a supervising position. 

But one day while playing for Treasure Beach United he was approached by a coach from Salem International University in West Virginia and offered a soccer scholarship.   

His life suddenly changed. “I’m so excited,” he said.  When he attends school in the fall it will be his first trip to America.  “I’m really looking forward to the school, the people and the professors.”  He says he’s not sure what he’ll major in but it might be tourism management.

When he started playing soccer in the sixth grade there was no real soccer complex to support him, so thinks the new facility will help more students. “Seeing that a lot of times there’s nothing going on around us because of facilities not being available and all of that, and now that one is going to actually be built in our community is great,” he said.  “We can actually go out play, practice and just have fun.  And I know down the way that opportunities will come up just like how mine did.”

 

UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES (MONA)  

Five days after the ground breaking in St. Elizabeth the ribbon cutting was held at UWI to celebrate their new Regupol track. 

The blue 400m Regupol track is very similar to the one at the Olympic stadium in Berlin where Bolt set his records in the 100m (9.58) and 200m (19.19) last summer.  After Bolt's world record performances the German track company, BSW GmbH, which built the Berlin track offered to gift Bolt's team, Racers Track Club and UWI with a similar track. The school is also home to the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) High Performance Training Centre.  The track took six months to build from the time they broke ground on November 14th last fall.  

Surrounded by a group of mountains referred to as the August Town hills, athletes at UWI had previously been running on grass.  If they wanted to have practice sessions they would have to use the practice track at the National Stadium but would always have to check to make sure it wasn’t rented out.  The other dominant track team in the country, MVP, whose premier athletes are Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser also use the practice track at the national stadium.

   

Dr. Cynthia Thompson and Grace Jackson 

For Grace Jackson, this is a dream come through.  As a three-time Olympian for Jamaica who got the silver medal in the 200m at the Seoul Games, she is Sports Development Officer and has been at the University since 1988.  “The dream is to have the best world class facilities, coaching facilities that our students can utilize, our Caribbean counterparts can utilize and our world class athletes both in Jamaica and the rest of the world will want to come to train and to engage in competition," she said.


Bolt's coach, Glen Mills, said it had been six years since his Racers team has been training at UWI and he started talking with Jackson of have a track at the stadium.   He expressed his gratitude to BSW GmbH and said "to the Regupol family we owe you a tremendous debt and we hope that another world record will repay all of that."  

When Bolt walked into the ceremony room he received a loud round of applause from the audience.  But although he was the star attraction he wasn't seated on the dais and Jackson had to request that he sit with the other officials who helped to make the track a reality at the campus.  When he finally spoke he said, “for me it [the track being donated] was a big honor.  This track is wonderful because this is where I set my last two previous records and I would say they were very fast," he said to a laughing audience.  "I’m going to train on it imaging what are the possibilities. 

It’s really important,” he continued “that a lot of young athletes get to compete on this track and get to run on a good quality track. It’s just a wonderful feeling to have a track to train on.” 

Ulf Pöppel, managing director of BSW GmbH, said “This Regupol is German engineering at it’s best.  This track is the most modern and sophisticated track technology that one can possible get now a days. 

“This track will be the training facility of a running superpower.  Jamaica is a superpower in short distance running.  The world class athletes that this country is sending out to compete deserve a world class training facility.  Now that facility is in place. It is in place for the Jamaican athletes to exercise and compete.  It is there for you to demonstrate where the world’s fastest runners come from – from Jamaica.” 

The Regupol track is just one aspect of the Mona Bowl for Sporting Excellence.  In addition to hosting the two track teams, the Mona Bowl already has a soccer academy consisting of three pitches. The complex will offer a little over 9,000 seats between the grandstand and bleachers, cricket pitch for international matches, two practice cricket pitches, volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, Olympic size pool, hockey field and a multipurpose sports field. The University will offer four postgraduate degrees in either: sports medicine, sports and exercise medicine, clinical psychology or a postgraduate degree from the Mona School of Business. 

The University will also establish the Caribbean Institute of Sports Medicine to include: physical therapy, sports medicine, sports psychology and sports rehabilitation. Scientists at the Mona campus and the University of Glasgow in Scotland are already working together to determine the role of genetics in the speed of the Jamaican sprinters.  So the University hopes to some day use its science prowess and establish a drug facility for Jamaica and the region, as its department of chemistry is already testing blood and urine samples for racing horses and its department of basic medical science helps students test body fluids as part of their laboratory practicals. 

The Regupol launch was an international event with officials from USA Track and Field, UK Athletics, IAAF, and FIFA in attendance.  Jamaica has a limited time to take advantage of the success of their athletes and goodwill they’re receiving form international sporting bodies.  They’re wise to construct sporting facilities which will hopefully ensure the success of future generation of athletes.  
--Connie Aitcheson