Cayman’s aspiring sportsmen and women will have more coaches to call on for advice and instruction now since 12 got certified recently in the Caribbean Course Certification Programme, endorsed by Caribbean Olympic organisations.
The had to do modules in theory, practical and homework to pass. They were tutored and certified by Dr. Dalton Watler who passed the instructor course in January in St. Vincent.
In partnership with the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees, the Olympic Committee hosted the training workshop for all teachers and community coaches from any sport. It focused on general sport topics and covered 10 modules including topics such as Coach as a Leader, Developing Sport Skills, Sport Medicine, Event Organisation and Fitness.
The workshop ran over three days at Camana Bay. It was conducted by Watler who is the President of the Cayman Islands Athletic Association and is also the Deputy Chief Officer for Tourism Development.
Donald McLean, President of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee, was at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex to present the certificates. He said: “Coaching is a very important part of the whole thing and if we’re going to continue to identify and develop talent the coaches are one of the most important parts of the puzzle because they have the closest interaction with the athletes.
“So we have to develop good coaching structure and need a very broad base. This certificate provides that broad base, not specific for any sport. Coaches can benefit from this. Later on we’ll have more sports specific coaching courses. This is a good start, but we do have others. We have a waiting list and we will run this course again.
“Sports tourism is a buzz word right now but it has been going on for some time. We’ve had meets here before – not invitational track meets, but we’ve had sailing regattas, rugby matches, Legends tennis, NORCECA volleyball for three or four years and one of these days, hopefully we’ll get a 50 metre pool and get major swimming championships.
“There are other areas we can develop, maybe cycling and the Cayman Marathon is quite big now, plus, of course, the Flowers Sea Swim. For an island our size I think we do extremely well.”
McLean is looking forward to Wednesday’s Cayman Invitational meet. “I think everybody is very excited about it. It is good that our leading athletes can compete at home. That has been one of the drawbacks in the past, having good athletes who are unable to compete at home. It’s been a long time in coming so I hope it stays as an annual event.
“There’s a high calibre of athletes coming and with Jamaica being just next door with some of the best sprinters in the world, it’s good to have them come over and compete here.”
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