Three long-time sporting contributors in the Cayman Islands – Reginald Ramoon, Kenrick Williams and Roy Ebanks – retired late last year after serving their community for decades, the government has announced.
“Their retirement is our loss, but we wish them all the best in the future,” Melissa Whorms, acting deputy chief officer in the Department of Sports, for which all three worked, stated in a press release.
Williams had hinted to the Cayman Compass back in March last year that he was on track to retirement but he had one final task to complete, after Caymanian sprinter Kemar Hyman requested to be trained by him for the 2021 Olympic Games.
Throughout his near 27 years of national coaching within Cayman, Williams oversaw the successes of five-time Olympian Cydonie Mothersill (1996-2012), four-time Olympian Ronald Forbes (2008-2016), three-time-Olympian Hyman (2012-2021) and Olympian Shalysa Wray (2021).
He founded the Hy-Tech Tigers Track and Field Club, which has seen hundreds of junior athletes compete at regional and international meets like the CRAIFTA Games. He also assisted more than 35 Caymanian athletes with scholarships to universities and colleges in the United States and Jamaica, the Department of Sports noted in its release.
Ramoon, who is considered one of Cayman’s football pioneers, retired previously. However, about seven years ago, he decided to resume his contributions by managing the maintenance of the Jimmy Powell Cricket Oval, the Truman Bodden Sports Complex and other departmental sporting facilities.
Ramoon was a coach and co-founder of North Side Football Club in 1980, which later became North East Football Club. The club is currently active within the 2021-22 Cayman Islands Football Association First Division Men’s League.
Ebanks, better known as Coach Huta, is hanging up his whistle after 18 years with the Department of Sport.
He served as an ambassador for sports throughout his time, mentoring and coaching youth and senior football players in Wes
t Bay, including with Future Sports Club, and the Cayman Islands national team.
Speaking about his former staff, Director of Sports Kurt Hyde said, “On behalf of the Department of Sports, I want to acknowledge the outstanding service of Coach Roy ‘Huta’ Ebanks, Coach Williams and Reginald Ramoon. Between the three of them, they have given the department and the nation decades of knowledge and experience in football, track and field, and grounds maintenance.
“The impact that these gentlemen have made in our communities is immense and their hard work has positively touched the lives of many.”
Whorms said that through their work, the three men had “have each gone way beyond creating outstanding athletes, they have also supported countless ‘at risk’ children through providing and facilitating numerous afterschool programmes and clubs”.
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