The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

HAVING secured another six-year deal with ESPN, the sixth edition of the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl will kick off the first day of the 2019 bowl season as a part of the 150th-anniversary celebration of college football.

Pete Derzis, senior vice president for college sports programming and events and Mid-American conference commissioner Dr Jon Steinbrecher are very enthused about what will take place at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium on Friday, December 20.

Derzis and Steinbrecher were in town yesterday to update the media, along with Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl representatives Richard Giannini and Lea Miller-Tooley, on what will transpire for both the participants and spectators.

“We’re getting ready to celebrate our sixth Bahamas Bowl on December 20 and it’s going to be an exciting time for all who are coming,” he said. “It’s been a real work in progress to continue to grow the event.The good news is that we’ve got six successful years on the dockage and we have just gotten an extension for an additional six-year term, so this is going to be a staple on the Bahamian sports calendar through 2025.”

Derzis said they have been able to secure all of their stakeholders, including ESPN, the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and The Tribune newspaper, one of the major sponsors for the event.

This year, Derzis said they are working on improving their appearance on social media and with America gearing up for the 150th anniversary of celebrations of college football, the Bahamas’ name will be buzzing with teams vying to make the trek here for the first bowl game of the year.

“We have more teams wanting to come. When the players find out that they are coming to the Bahamas is a tremendous time,” he said. “The coaches play off it extremely well. They use it in recruiting, their alumni are thrilled and it’s a trip to paradise. Most of these players will never get an opportunity to visit a foreign country and to see the culture, meet your people and enjoy the food and all the things that make the Bahamas a wonderful place for them to experience.”

Teams living in the upper midwest are experiencing the cold weather so they are all lined up to come to the sunny Bahamas for the bowl game.

In late November, Derzis said they would announce which two teams have been selected, based on their performances during the season, to play in the bowl game.

He said they have had 10 different teams over the past five years and they hope the trend will continue this year so that they can give some others the exposure that the previous ones enjoyed.

“The mouth of word from those 10 coaches and their athletic directors speaks volumes for the game,” he said. “We can tell them in our meetings, but when the people who have been telling them, it’s different.

“So we are always trying to find new teams to experience this wonderful game,” he added.

Steinbrecher said as one of the founding conferences of the Bahamas Bowl, the Mid-American Conference is delighted to be back to continue the legacy they have developed with Conference USA.

“Every year our teams come back and it is such a unique experience,” he said. “We had our spring meeting just a couple of weeks ago and we brought in a number of student-athletes to interact.

“I was sitting next to one of the student-athletes who participated in the game and he said he thought he would never have had an opportunity to come to a place like this. He came here and experienced a unique culture, met some great people and stayed at a great place.”

With a week here in paradise to practice, interact with the community and play in the bowl game, Steinbrecher said it’s definitely something that any player who participates in the bowl game will get to cherish for the rest of their lives.

“Every year, the team that is here, volunteer to go back,” he said. “That doesn’t happen often. We always try to move people around. We’ve done that here, but they’ve told us if you want us to go back to the Bahamas Bowl, please do. It’s just really a tremendous experience.”

With the teams picked at least a week earlier than they normally do, Steinbrecher said it gives the fans a little more time to prepare themselves for making the necessary travel arrangements to come with their teams to the Bahamas.

While in town, Steinbrecher said they will continue to look for opportunities when they come to the Bahamas in October and November to interact in the community and will be willing to help out in any way that they can like they did one year with the hurricane relief efforts.