To most people Henry Piarrot is simply the new manager of the Grand Caymanian. However the Tennessee native is eager to make the resort a venue for sports.
Piarrot took the first step last Friday with the staging of the locale’s inaugural darts tournament. The former Sevier County resident states he is considering delving into other sports.
“We have chalk scoreboards for now but next year we would like to add digital darts scoreboards,” Piarrot said. “We’d like to do darts better than anyone ever has before. We got a big beautiful dock and there is a chance to host a fishing tournament. People have also talked to me about getting into local dominoes but I don’t anything about that sport.”
Friday’s team event, which used a ‘blind draw’ format, was claimed by Filipino players Mel Tagalog and Johnny Dulnagen. For their efforts they would claim roughly $127 in cash. Runners-up Matt Lee and Paul Anglin (the current president of the Cayman Islands Darts Association) would get a smaller prize of about $50.
The darts tournament was encouraging. In all 26 players came out and were split up into 13 teams. The Philippines were well represented at the tournament by the likes of Rodan Asuncion, Jasper Esguerra and Randy Cruz. Other notable players included Cliff Weeks and Cassius Anglin. A decent crowd was on hand to catch the action including community figure Reginald ‘Choppy’ Delapenha.
Piarrot states though the turnout was modest, he feels there is potential to grow darts in Cayman.
“I didn’t set out to do darts but I ended up sending three kids to college running darts leagues. In Nashville I ran in-house tournaments and leagues at my bar. I’d say 8-10,000 people in the town knew about darts. There were 160 regular people at first and in two or three years it was up to 350 people.
“Money is a part of the draw but only if the participation is high. In Cayman if you can get more people to do it in a recreational way you can grow the sport. That’s a big reason why the Grand Caymanian will host blind draw tournaments every Friday night going forward and in 6-8 months time we’d like to have an in-house league. I could see the top 20 players from that league invited to an invitational tournament.
“I’ve only been here three and a half months and this is my first time coming to Cayman. I’m very much a student so I’m careful not to say I know everything. The guys at the dart association have been here. I’m here to make sure what they want is done well.”
Piarrot went on to say that quite a bit has already been invested in the resort for the sake of darts.
“I was placed here by my boss at M. Gibson Hotels Group in Knoxville, the management company hired by Grand Caymanian. There wasn’t much to do darts-wise, less than $400 I’d say. The floor and the walls were carpeted and the boards were put up. With the bar on one side of the room as opposed to in the middle, it makes for a interesting setting.”
Related Videos
