The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE he’s still making his assessments of his new role as the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said he has a series of meetings with the necessary stakeholders to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

“We’re making sure that the staff are comfortable, relaxed and have the energy to want to move the ministry forward,” said Bowleg, who was elected as the Progressive Liberal Party’s Member of Parliament for Garden Hills during the September 16 General Elections and appointed as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture a week later by Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis on September 22.

“That is most important so that our performance level as a ministry can be improved.

“I think the staff is excited that I’m there and we will see that in a short matter of weeks.”

Back from a brief visit to Grand Bahama, Bowleg said he was able to inspect the non-working environment that he discovered, but he hopes to provide them with a building so that they can become more productive moving forward.

“At the same time, we checked out the sporting facilities to find out what is there, what needs repairs and maintained at a better rate so that they can continue their prominence in the country.

“We are also going to look at putting in a gymnasium down there outside of the high school facilities so we can look at creating more opportunities for international events to be staged there.”

In the meantime, Bowleg said he intends to meet with the stakeholders in his three-fold ministry, starting with the Junkanoo Corporation New Providence Limited (JCNP) group for junkanoo and eventually the Bahamas Olympic Committee and federations and associations of the various sporting bodies.

“They ought to know that despite any political affiliations, we’re not going to let any of that interfere with our commitments to everybody,” Bowleg pointed out. “I am going to be Minister of Sports for all, for Culture and for Youth as well.

“So I want the federations and associations in sports to understand that I’ve been there.

“I’ve done it and so I understand their pain and I’m open to meeting with all of them to foster a better working relationship and allowing them to be more productive in their various disciplines.”

And with virtually no format competition taking place in the country, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Bowleg said this is the ideal time for federations and associations to stage clinics and seminars to train their personnel so once the country is open again, “the coaches will be prepared and ready to train the athletes.”

As it pertains to exactly when persons can see the return of sporting activities in the country on a larger scale, Bowleg said it will depend on the answers the federations and associations receive from their applications to the Ministry of Health.

“We’re going to ask all federations and associations to provide us with the protocols they would put in place if they want to commence play again,” he said.

“Once they do that and they meet the standards of the Ministry of Health, then we will resume sporting activities again.

“One thing I want to push for is that the non-contact sports will get the opportunity to start very soon, but again it will depend on the protocols that these federations and associations put in place.”

No stranger to sports administration, Bowleg served as the immediate past president of the Bahamas Basketball Federation and men’s national team coach as well as former coach of the St Andrew’s Hurricanes, CC Sweeting Cobras senior boys’ high school basketball teams and the Lady Cheetahs in the New Providence Women’s Basketball Association.

Now in his new role as a politician, he assured the public that the “health” of the nation is still its “wealth.”