Over the past decades, this country has been through much in terms of sport. We have had a mix of successes and failures.
We have not always shown ourselves capable of learning from our lessons in sport and this has proven to be particularly disturbing and disheartening.
Fortunately, when we have had good experiences, they dispense a very good feeling about what is possible.
Sport is a human right and allows for the holistic development of the individual. We do not take the time to promote this reality.
It is an unfortunate truth that all too often, our educators have been at odds with those who promote sport if only because they hold the view, albeit an unsubstantiated one, that sport detracts from one’s academic development and hence, does not accommodate the education of the individual.
History reveals that in the US, for decades, the native population, blacks, and other ethnic groups, were pushed into sport and music because this was seen by the racists and white supremacists as all that they were suited too, given the theory that they possessed smaller brains with lesser grey matter that was evidence of intelligence.
All colonised peoples were taught, falsely, that intelligence was somehow directly related to one’s colour and that colonisation was a form of redemption. Only through colonisation, rooted as it was in the most depraved form of exploitation, could the colonised people experience freedom.
Happily, history is replete with outstanding examples of the once colonised peoples who used sport, art, drama, and music to showcase their abundance of talent, the expressions of their intelligence.
We live in a world today where development is often measured in terms of money. It does not matter how abysmally morally depraved an individually may be, his/her wealth distinguishes him/her, as being worthy of high social status.
There are times when, unfortunately, the pursuit of the almighty dollar has been seen by many in sport as the sole criterion for determining their status as well as who they perceive themselves to be in society.
The Vincentian reality
As a former colony, St Vincent and the Grenadines is blighted by the legacy of brutish colonialism. Our economics has always dictated our politics and that persists to this very day.
It is therefore not in any way surprising that cricket, the sport of the colonisers, became and in large measure, remains in a stellar pride of place in Vincentian society.
More than anything else, across the Caribbean, cricket was the clearest reflection of all that colonialism stood for. It was about the pleasure of the colonisers, and it was largely used, not to facilitate the education of our people, but to remined them of their inferior status. This is the reason that the sport was, for decades, dominated by successive generations of the plantocracy.
Some of our countries are still struggling with this perniciously debilitating legacy.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines, cricket persists and without acknowledging its dark past, is gradually emerging out of the shadows, into a light that many would like to influence but as yet cannot.
The history of Vincentian society reveals, in an almost sinister way, the persistent struggle for freedom through sport, by the adherents, willing participants, in the midst of a b roader society that as yet has been unable to clearly define itself and its ambitions towards self-actualisation.
Many of us are still caught up between being Naipaul’s ‘mimic men’ and George Lamming’s ‘castle of my skin’. The stark reality may well be that we best fit Fanon’s concept of ‘the wretched of the earth’ on which we live.
Some Vincentian sporting achievers
Wendell Hercules
Earlier this week this columnist was reminded of the impressive and virtually indefatigable efforts of Wendell Hercules. An editorial in the Searchlight newspaper dated 20 October 2017, stated, “As a track athlete he ran in local and regional inter-school games, including Dominica in 1969, Guyana in 1970 and numerous trips to Grenada. In the Southern Games in Trinidad, which is a competition for the best track athletes in the Caribbean, he competed successfully in the 800 and mile run. His track success led him to receive a track scholarship in 1972 to the University of Idaho to study civil engineering”. Always, as an athlete possessive of immense love for his homeland and his people, Wendell attempted to get Vincentian athletes to access scholarships to Idaho.
Long after he left the scene, Lenford ‘Poui’ O’Garro, was recruited at the same institution, followed by Jacqueline Ross, Eversley Linley and Orde Ballantyne, all by Michael Keller, coach at the institution, all of whom have gone on to successful careers.
The Puerto Rico options
Carl Ollivierre, Sonia Israel, and Garth Saunders (now deceased) all obtained scholarships to Puerto Rico. Israel pursued physical education while Saunders did civil engineering and Ollivierre obtained a degree in medicine.
The foregoing occurred at a time when Puerto Rican universities opened up to accepting Caribbean athletes and many grabbed the opportunities with both hands to blend their athletics with academics to develop themselves.
Nickie Peters
On 4 September 2009, the Searchlight Newspaper carried a story on Nickie Peters, of Belmont, now an outstanding academic in the USA, proudly showcasing how it is possible to work diligently at sport to achieve the academic success that has the potential to lift one from one status to another.
Even though Nickie and his brothers ran from their home in Belmont to Villa each weekend to enjoy a swim; even though he easily won the 800m and 1500m at the Community College sports while a student there, he had absolutely no interest in running.
What eventually got him to take running seriously was the information that he could access an athletics scholarship if he produced good times and maintained good academics. Armed with this information he set his goal and is today, Dr Nickie Peters, the beneficiary of a commitment to achieving a goal through sport that he never knew was possible, for a very long time.
Adonal Foyle
Whoever thought that a gangly boy who first picked up a basketball at age 15 would have been considered talented enough to be spotted, taken to the USA, attend Colgate, become a #8 Draft Pick, and create incredible history for himself and St Vincent and the Grenadines as an NBA star with the Golden State Warriors.? That is the incredible story, at least in part, of Vincentian sporting legend, Adonal Foyle, of Canouan.
According to his biography, “Adonal has received many honours, including induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, and the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame, NBA Players Association Community Contribution All-Star Award, Social Change Agent (Greenlining Institute), NBA Community Assist Awards (multiple years) and named Runner Up Central Floridian of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel in 2010. He has also been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for St. Vincent & the Grenadines and has been honoured with his own national postage stamp…A published author, national speaker, and consultant”.
Foyle has been in acting, established himself as a community ambassador, a philanthropist and engaged in broadcasting.
Foyle established the Kerosene Lamp Foundation which conducted annual clinics in St Vincent and the Grenadines for several years.
Others
Eswort Coombs of Chateaubelair remains this country’s highest achiever at the Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals of the 400m at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. He earned a scholarship to Essex Community College in New Jersey and worked under coach Michael Smart. He then moved on to Ohio State University.
In what proved to be a most successful year, Eswort became the first Vincentian track athlete to mount the podium after placing third in the 400m at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, March 1995. He then won gold at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Finally, he won this country’s lone gold medal at the World University Student Games in Fukuoka, Japan.
Natasha Mayers won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in 2010.
Kineke Alexander was a mainstay in the 400m for this country. After medalling at the Carifta Games, Kineke earned an athletic scholarship to Iowa State University where she has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Kineke won bronze at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2006 and again, at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, 2015.
Shafiqua Maloney earned a scholarship to Arkansas where she established herself in the 800m and carried home a master’s degree at the same time, a feat that not many have been able to accomplish.
Most recently, Handal Roban, Carifta gold medallist in Nassau, Bahamas, 2018, built on his athletics reputation while competing and studying at Jamaica College, before earning a scholarship at Penn State University.
In his first year at Penn State, Roban has finished third in both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships this year, while also making the Dean’s List for academic performance in his second semester.
While we have had cricketers who have made it to the West Indies Cricket team, we have not had much by way of longevity in the sport at the highest level.
The most recent cricketers have been assured that given the kinds of financial rewards available in the several versions of the game today, gaining selection to the regional team for series and to any of the prestigious and lucrative leagues around the world, immediately secures them a viable livelihood.
Conclusion
Carl Ollivierre, Denis Byam, Ozari Williams, are among Vincentian athletes who have taken the time to pursue careers in sport, an ever-growing field of options.
Today, parents can feel comfortable that a career in sport can lead their children to a secure livelihood for them and their families in the future.
The time has come for us to cast aside the old adage that engagement in sport necessarily translates to ‘loss of instructional time’ and a ‘dead end’ in life.
The world of sport continues to witness the persistent emergence of new trends and hence, new career options. Our education system in St Vincent and the Grenadines must therefore become more open and creative in its delivery to students of our nation.
