The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

In an effort to broaden the scope of sailing among student athletes, the Sports Unit at the Ministry of Education has partnered with the Bahamas Sailing Association to increase the profile of the sport through the summer camp and year-round programmes.

The unit officially became a supporter of the programme last week with its sponsorship of several students to take part in the course at the Nassau Yacht Club.

“It gives me great pleasure to present this small token of our appreciation and any way it can help you [the BSA] to move forward,” said Joel Lewis, deputy director of education.

“It can go a long way in helping to assist in the development of students and broadens their horizons.”

National team head coach and BSA representative Robert Dunkley said the ultimate goal is to have sailing on the physical education curriculum of every school in the country.

“We would like to thank the ministry for all it has done in helping our sailing programme and hopefully we can get even more schools involved in the programme. It’s really a great way to get kids involved in a fabulous sport,” he said.

“We have been working really hard to get it into government schools. If we had more schools we would broaden the whole base. We welcome more schools. Sailing should become the national sport in the Bahamas. In our environment and the great sailors we have in this country I would love to see that happen and I would love to see sailing in every school in this country.”

The Summer Sailing Camp comprises three, two-week sessions, Mondays to Fridays, 8:30am to 3:30pm. Each student is assigned a boat which is theirs for the duration of the camp. They are also provided a life jacket. Once they have been assigned this equipment, they are responsible for its care.

The camp operates with a maximum capacity of 30 students per session.

Thus far, the most prominent participant in the programme among public schools has been the TA Thompson Scorpions, led by coach Frank Johnson.

“When my principal asked me to follow through with this programme and assist with supervising I was excited about the opportunity. It has been a pleasure of mine as a sailing enthusiast. Working with Mr Dunkley I observed their organisation’s structure and discipline and bringing our kids from a level where they were just treating it casually to really getting excited about the sailing programme,” he said.

“I have seen them interact and it is a pleasure to see my kids sail alongside the kids from the private schools. My kids are becoming great at it, they have the confidence and the fact that in a short period of time they have become outstanding junior sailors is amazing. Now I love it and it is a part of my programme that I do throughout the year. It is making me a better coach overall.”

Once a student has completed one of the summer sessions, they are able to continue sailing throughout the year in the year-round programme, (weekly Saturday sailing sessions as well as after schools on certain days).

There are 3-4 that are in the year-round programme. We also run an instructors’ programme that qualifies our better sailors to become instructors and we bring others on as assistants.

Evon Wisdom, of the MOE Sports Unit, encouraged more corporate citizens to aide the programme.

“This is a very expensive measure. The sponsorship of each one of these children is about $300. Mr Dunkley went out and found sponsors for many of these children and we are happy to assist,” he said. “It has taken an entire classroom of children and given them a constructive means they would not have had. Corporate citizens have been fantastic. We want to do our part to see how we can get more children involved in this programme.”

Persons interested in joining the programme are encouraged to contact Niomni Summer at the Sports Unit at the Ministry of Education.