The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg called on sporting bodies to be more innovative and diversified in their leadership, while advising them of the revision of the Bahamas Sports Advisory Council, provisions for the development of faculties for the seventh Bahamas Games in 2023 and to make the federations more self-sufficient as they relaunch sports in paradise.

The Progressive Liberal Party’s Member of Parliament for Garden Hills made his comments during the Meet & Greet Sports Event organised by the newly formed Bahamas Event Sports (BES), headed by the husband and wife team of Tommy and Mekeva Wallace-Stubbs on Saturday in Fusion Superplex’s VIP lounge.

His address was made to a number of sporting bodies, including rugby, baseball, softball, track and field, rowing, flag football, E-Sports, the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association, the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) and the Ministry of Education, all of whom had a representative that gave some remarks.

During the event, BES also presented awards to fitness guru Leonardo Dean, GSSSA president Varel Davis, baseball coach Mario Ford, NPBA president James Price and Flamingo Sports Club president Michael Butler for their commitment and dedication to sports over the years.

The presentations were made by Carlos Foulkes of Fusion, NACAC president Mike Sands, former baseball executive Athama Bowe, BES representative Richard Rudon and Minister Bowleg.

As he addressed the “white elephant” in the room, Bowleg answered the question of “when will sports start?” He said as long as sporting bodies can play outside and they have less than 30 persons gathered together, they can commence their activities.

“So the government is not stopping you from playing sports, especially those in non-contact sports like baseball, softball, golf and track and field and all of those (sports), you can play,” Bowleg said. “Nothing is stopping you from playing.

“What I think we need to do is be more innovative in our approach to when we’re playing these sports. Basketball wants to know when they can start. They have to go outdoors. They don’t want to go outside.

“If you stay inside, you can’t play because only 20 people the government will approve to allow you to play. In basketball, you already have 12 people on a team and two teams that’s already 24. So that’s not going to happen.”

Bowleg said his ministry and himself will always have an open door policy, although it’s best to book an appointment, so that he can hear and discuss any complaints or issues that any sporting body has as it relates to sports in the country.

“We can always have these straight shooting conversations to see sports move to the next level,” said Bowleg, who noted that he continues to have dialogue with persons who contact him on a personal level as well.

As the immediate past president of the Bahamas Basketball Federation, Bowleg said one of the things he has noticed in his new role as minister is that there is a problem with leadership in the majority of the Bahamas’ sporting bodies.

“Many people who play the game or coach the game, believe they can lead their sporting federation to the next level,” said Bowleg, who used legendary Erving ‘Magic’ Johnson as a prime example in trying to coach the Los Angeles Lakers because of his success as a former player in the NBA, but it didn’t work out. “We must move away from believing that because we partake in those disciplines that we should be the one to lead those organisations.”

In short order, Bowleg said he will revise the Bahamas Sports Advisory Council, which will advise the minister, he noted that the council will be made up of persons from various sporting disciplines to move sports further and to collaborate for the betterment and development of sports moving forward.

“That advisory council will not only be made up of persons of sporting disciplines, but people of different ethnic colour, who know how to raise money,” Bowleg said.

“So I’m going to get out of the little box and do a lot of things differently. In a few weeks, there will be a lot of changes made in the ministry because we can no longer be the same.

“If we want change, change has to happen and once these changes are made, changes will happen. Some may like me for the change and some may not.

“But it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve always done it my way and you can tell sweet Jesus from today on and forever more to come, I will continue to do it my way.”

Under this government, Bowleg said they have approved for the next 10 years, a total of $40 million for facilities development throughout the entire Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

“We do believe that if you have the proper facilities, especially in the Family Islands, we will be able to develop those diamonds in the rough and the next Stevie Gardiner will not have to come from Abaco to go to Nassau to attend school to prove that he’s the best in the country,” Bowleg said.

“And I assure you that as of the next budget year, we will commence our development and upliftment and preparation of those facilities in those Family Islands. We will strategically approach each Family Island one at a time so that we can ensure that all sporting disciplines have a home and place for the upcoming 2023 Bahamas Games.”

As a country in an archipelago, Bowleg said it’s incumbent of sporting personalities to develop more opportunities for persons to participate in sports like rowing where there are countless scholarships available, especially for young women.

He commended Nassau Rowing Club president Kyle Chea and his executive team for their initiative to try and get the sport instituted within the schools and into both the calendar for the GSSSA and the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools to get more scholarships.

And he noted that because of the popularity of the sport, he also wants to see American football implemented into the school system so that it can attract more young men to participate.

While they work on it, Bowleg said they hope to utilise the Flag Football programme to introduce more players to the sport.

Bowleg recalled how the former administration, led then by Prime Minister Perry Christie, had regulated a fund for sports derived from the taxing of the gaming industry.

He noted he’s going through the books and his predecessor, Dr Daniel Johnson, who chairs the committee, has assured him that they will seek to provide those funds that should be earmarked for sports.

“You can not solely depend on the government for funding. We can’t do it,” Bowleg said.

“We must find ways and means to find funding to assist those federations,” he added.

And while he said he wants to encourage federations to become self-sufficient, he said he and his ministry will be obligated to raise the grants offered to the sporting bodies, considering that there’s been a drastic decline from the $80,000 that was given under the leadership of Prime Minister Lynden Pindling in 1991 to $20,000 that was offered in the last administration headed by Dr Hubert Minnis.

“It is my mandate that I increase the grants to federations and those grants will be to where they should have been 31 years ago,” he said.

In short order, Bowleg said his ministry will also roll out their incentive grants to federations who can produce more diamonds in the rough by going into the inner cities and finding those athletes who don’t have the financial means to compete with those athletes who do and subsequently earn the rights to making the national teams to the detriment of those who can’t afford it.

“Take the parks and hit the golf balls and the kids with no shape and no shoes will ask you to let them swing the tennis rackets and the golf clubs,” Bowleg said. “And I assure you, we will find our diamonds in the rough.

“The best is not because my child could pay for it or your child could pay for it.”

And Bowleg said his ministry will reintroduce Sports in Paradise where the federations can benefit by bringing more international sporting events to the country, rather than watching the international entities make all of the profit of hosting the events here.

He noted how the Bahamas Volleyball Federation was approached through the late DeVince Smith, about doing some of the things that were done in basketball with the Summer of Thunder. But unfortunately, it didn’t materialise and since his death, nobody in the sport has followed up.

Had the federation created their own tournament during the off-season, Bowleg said he believes that the federation would have been in a better position to secure some much needed funds to make them more self-sufficient.

“Federations, make yourself self-sufficient. If you want to find a way on how to do that, why can’t we as Bahamians go to the NCAA Final Four and sell the Bahamas and your discipline and tell them if you come, you can have good games, very competitive games. Come and play.

“And I assure you that Sports in Paradise will not be a government thing. It would be a federation thing. The movement and upward mobility and the development of sports is not in the government’s hands, it is in your hands.

As the minister, Bowleg said he will do whatever it takes to assist the sporting bodies.

“Your job is to come and tell me what you want and how we can do it. I will help you to do that, but I can’t do it by myself. We have to depend on each other. A basketball man can not take track and field to the next level. A track man can not take soccer to the next level,” he said.

“It takes you who have that passion for that discipline to play your role in your part and I assure you that with me at the helm, you will see great changes for you and your athletes as we take sports to the next level.”