The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

KIESHNO Major is now the latest former amateur boxer to become an International Boxing Association Star 1 certified coach in the Bahamas.

Major, who competed on the national team as a super heavyweight boxer, recently passed his certification along with Grand Bahamian female referee/judge Geddet Basden-Williams.

He was presented with his certification certificate by Bahamas Boxing Federation president Vincent Strachan during a ceremony at the National Boxing Gymnasium.

“This is a certificate that I was working on for a long time and the opportunity just presented itself,” said Major, who officially retired from boxing about five years ago.

“A lot of coaches in the Bahamas don’t have this certification, so it’s a breath of fresh air to finally achieve this goal.”

He endured an intense two-week training course that took place around 3am in the morning because of the time zone with the other parts of the world where other candidates participated.

“I didn’t know what to expect because this was actually the first time that I took a course like this,” Major said. “It was kind of scary in a way, but I was able to pull through.”

Through this certification, Major said he feels he’s one step closer to achieving his goal of getting boxers to not only compete, but to win international medals at the major competitions like the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, something that he fell short of accomplishing in his career.

Major, 38, previously teamed up with fellow International certified boxing coach Valentino Knowles to form the After Shock Boxing Club.

Together, they also hosted a few amateur boxing shows at the National Boxing Gymnasium.

However, Major said they decided to expand their operation and he ended up forming the 7th Ranked Boxing Club a year ago, which included such promising boxers as Erin Fowler, Eric Williams, Austin Minnis, Aimi Newchurch and his two sons Khalius and Zion Major.

Strachan said it’s the federation’s intention to produce a cadre of coaches, referees and judges by the end of the year and these certifications for Major and Basden-Williams are just a step in that direction.

“The number is expected to increase after a review of some of the results from the course just before Major’s,” he said.

Strachan said having more internationally certified coaches on board will help to provide the assistance that is needed for the boxers when they travel to compete on the national teams.

“For many years, local coaches refused to travel with our national boxing teams. We relied on coaches from other countries to assist us,” Strachan said. “Not having your coaches wearing your country’s colours is a major disadvantage to us.

“That has to change because a female nationally certified referee/judge from Grand Bahama was also successful in the Star one coaches course.

Geddet Williams has become only the second female in the Bahamas to be an international certified coach. She is the first to be certified as both a coach and referee/judge. She will also move toward the Star two online coaches course later this year.”

Hopefully, this will enable Major, Basden-Williams, Knowles and Strachan and other qualified coaches to get more opportunities to travel on the national teams that represent the Bahamas at the CAC, Pan American, Commonwealth and Olympic Games in the future.