Krishan Welcome is one of those rare athletes who loves to compete in team sports for the camaraderie as well as the strategy.
The 27-year-old national football captain, fresh from Jordan, Israel, where she attended a conference on women in sport, says that she gleaned a lot from the trip.
‘It was a great forum for sharing of ideas,’ she says. ‘I was particularly interested in one participant’s experience of setting up a girl’s football team in Palestine with the overarching aim of promoting peace in the region. I find it fascinating that sports can be used as a socio-educational tool to promote ideas of peace in war-torn countries,’
Football is not the only sport in which Welcome has excelled. She represented the Cayman Islands in the World Netball Championship in New Zealand in 1999 and Jamaica in 2003. At last year’s Olympic football qualifiers she captained the national side.
‘Sports have always been a retreat for me – a retreat from work, from the routine frustrations of life,’ she said.
‘It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a fun way to keep in shape. Aside from the game itself, I enjoy football because of the team atmosphere.
‘I like being able to interact with the players and the coaches (I’m a sucker for team sports). Also, as one of the ‘Old Foots’ (an honorary term, I’m told) on the team I like having the opportunity of being able to mentor the younger players in their knowledge of the game as well as in school work and life generally.’
She turned to football a couple of years ago because she found it ‘more challenging both physically and tactically’ and she really wanted to test her skills.
‘While I like to think I’m naturally athletic, that doesn’t necessarily translate into having all of the necessary skills to play different sports. So when I started to play football I really had to work on my ball control and field positioning. It’s an ongoing process and, as someone once said, “If you’ve stopped learning, it’s because you’re dead.”
One of her achievements off the field is working with literacy in HM Prison Northward.
‘The young man I was tutoring completed two levels of the reading program in a relatively short period of time, taking him from a point where he couldn’t identify certain letters and vowel sounds to a point where he was reading fairly fluently. It’s one of those ‘chills down your spine’ moments.’
Other than that, Welcome is an associate attorney at Walkers. So you see this young woman has all the right stuff. Where did she get her grounding? From a couple of sources, at least one of which might seem unlikely.
Fidel Castro is one of her role models because she respects ‘his refusal to succumb to what he deems to be unfair pressure’.
‘There’s something very endearing about taking a position and standing your ground. It obviously helps a great deal if you’ve taken the right position, but that’s another article,’ she adds.
Her other role model is perhaps more understandable: ‘My pastor’s wife, Bertranne Menko, because she’s one of those people you can tell absolutely anything and she will always give you practical, tried-and-true advice.’
Her motto is: ‘Always to improve regardless of what I’m doing. So as long as I am playing sport I want to improve my techniques, my fitness level, my understanding of the game, etc. I know it sounds very clichéd but it’s also important for me to make a difference in people’s lives. I’d rather be remembered for helping someone through a tough time than being the best right-back/defender.’
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