News > The College Launches Sports and Wellness Institute
The College Launches Sports and Wellness Institute Building on key partnerships, The College of The Bahamas launched its Sports and Wellness Institute on Monday, May 18th, 2009, designed to provide standardized professional development training for members of the local sporting community and ultimately impact the development of world class athletes in the country. The institute’s launch coincided with the ministries of Education and Youth, Sports and Culture insisting on adequate certification for sports administrators, trainers and other key sporting personnel. Initially, according to College of The Bahamas President Janyne Hodder, the institute will focus on proper training of persons involved in the five (5) core sports identified by the Ministry of Education – Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Track & Field, Softball – and will incorporate, in the future, professional development training for additional sports like swimming, boxing, baseball, and tennis. “The target groups therefore will include, but are not limited to, coaches across the spectrum, schools, national teams, officials, referees, statisticians, sports administrators, managers, trainers, wellness coaches, fitness instructors, and nutritionists,” she explained during a press conference to announce the institute’s launch. “The Institute will seek to accomplish a number of goals, among them: providing professional development opportunities for persons working in wellness/sports within the community and assisting with the certification of professionals, particularly those who teach and coach young people.” College of The Bahamas officials envisioned the institute after they had held a joint workshop last summer with the ministries of Education and Youth, Sports & Culture where 40 physical education teachers and coaches received professional development training in the Art of Injury Prevention and the Fundamentals of Coaching Basketball. They determined that there was a need for further training of these professionals in sports and wellness. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Archie Nairn, stressed that his ministry is prepared to support this “strategic initiative” in any way it can. “We believe that good things can come out of this initiative and we believe that working together as a united force we will be able to assist our physical education teachers, trainers and other stakeholders to impart the kind of knowledge to our young people that we would wish them to have particularly with regard to the five core sports,” he said. He pointed out, however, that the ministry’s support is constrained by financial limitations. Mr. Nairn also added that he hopes to have the institute’s reach expanded to incorporate members of the sporting community in the Family Islands. “We believe that the persons involved in the programme will continue to do well and assist our young people as they too develop. Our concern, though, would have to be how to reach those persons, those teachers and other stakeholders – physical education teachers in particular – in the family islands,” he said. “We know that COB has a presence on a number of the Family Islands, but there are some other islands where we would need to reach those persons who also have a role to play in the development of our young people.” He also expressed his desire for the institute’s certifications to be internationally recognized, one of the aims on which members of the working group – that will become the advisory board – are focusing. Working group member and President of the Bahamas Basketball Federation, Lawrence Hepburn, expressed his enthusiasm. “For too long our sports have been developing willy-nilly. We wanted to move away from that kind of operation and we wanted to develop something at a college level. And this is in line with what all of our federations need to be doing in terms of the development of its administrators, sports and coaches. This is also part of what the [Bahamas Olympic Association] is responsible for. To produce world class athletes we have to [develop] it on a national platform.” He added that it also represents a chance for a cohesive relationship among the various federations. “All of our federations have been so scattered for years. This is a chance for them to come together to present papers for the government to see our direction [regarding] training and development to see where our sporting bodies need to be going…I see this institute not only in terms of training and development of coaches but to provide us with a library with manuals for sports and sports development, historical facts and knowledge of our national heroes that we can place in our schools,” Mr. Hepburn added. The institute will utilise local as well as international facilitators. Members of the Sports & Wellness Institute’s working group are representatives from the core sporting federations, ministries of Education, Health and Youth, Sports & Culture and personnel from The College of The Bahamas who will provide advice, guidance and their expertise. Within the coming weeks, the Institute will formulate a calendar outlining its programmes for the 2009/10 year. In fact, the Institute has already been approached by the Bahamas Basketball Federation and the Bahamas Football Association to run programmes as early as this summer. Members of the Sports and Wellness Institute’s working group are: Mr. Lawrence Hepburn (Bahamas Basketball Federation); Mr. Curt Hollingsworth (Bahamas Amateur Athletics Association); College of The Bahamas Athletics Director Ms. Kimberley Rolle; Ms. Valerie Lowe (Bahamas Swim Federation); Dr. Anne Rolle (Ministry of Health); Mr. Keith Saunders (Ministry of Education); Mrs. Oria Wood-Knowles (Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture); Mr. Rommel Knowles (Bahamas Softball Federation); Mr. Wellington Miller (Bahamas Olympic Association); Mr. Lionel Haven (Bahamas Football Association); Mr. Joe Smith (Bahamas Volleyball Federation); Mr. Wesley Rolle (Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association); Dr. Pandora Johnson (COB); Dr. Linda Davis (COB) and Antona Curry (COB).
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