Former outstanding hockey player and longstanding national coach Ralph Watson does not believe that sports is held in the highest esteem in Barbados.
Watson who represented Barbados with distinction over the years both at the regional and international level said sports in Barbados is viewed differently compared to how it is perceived in Jamaica, Trinidad and other regional islands.
“Our results have not been very outstanding right across the broad. Track and Field – don’t talk about it at all. We have countries like Trinidad doing very well in track and field, Jamaica – oh my goodness, don’t go there! Bahamas, Grenada, Antigua and St. Lucia who has a high-class world jumper,” Watson said.
During a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY, Watson reasoned that while other Caribbean countries continued to do well in competitive sports, he wondered what Barbados was really doing.
Ralph Watson (FP)
“Right now, our sports is not at its highest. A lot of sport, one, suffering from one participation and I am looking at it at a regional level. We were dominant in sports at one time at the regional level. We are not anymore. We were a force to be reckoned with in cricket, football, netball and we are not anymore.
“These are things I keep asking. We are not there at all in track and field. We are now at a stage where we are not doing any physical activities for school children. In the next couple of years, we are going to have some serious problems,” Watson explained.
He added: “My biggest issue is that the Ministry of Education’s main focus is academics and there are so many other things we can do. If you raise a country of bare academics, we are going to have some serious issues with our athletes in the next couple of years. Because you are not going as far as physical movement and I don’t know why the Ministry of Education is taking that route.
“This has been going on for a long time and we can’t tell the Ministry of Education what they should do, we have to make recommendations to them. Right now, you are having students sit in front of the computer for too long. In the next couple of years, I don’t want to see the type of athletes to come out of Barbados if we continue in this vein.”
As someone who is well known around every aspect of hockey in Barbados and has played an integral part in the Barbados Hockey Federation, Watson said he was longing to see the sport being played once more within communities.
“We used to play hockey on the grass at grounds like Empire, Trents, YMCA, Wanderers. I knew of young children who saw the sports play in the community and were given the opportunity to play. That was a blessing. I know of boys around Empire ground when they had big hockey games and said ‘let me try this’.
“Since hockey has been taken to the Astroturf, the only people that go to the Astroturf are players. Nobody walks to the Astroturf and says ‘let me go try this’. So, I would love to see hockey taken back in some ways to the communities.
“You don’t have to play division one there but you can play division two. I would like to see hockey being playing back on the hard courts. Play some seven aside on the hardcourt and get people in the community seeing hockey. Get children seeing hockey,” Watson said.
He added: “If you play all at the turf you will have a problem. I play school league at the schools so the school children get a chance to see the sport being played. If I play all the matches at the turf, who is going to see it? The only people that are going to see it are the children who come there to play hockey.”
Watson revealed that one of the greatest pleasures coaching has given him was guiding young people, something he said he enjoys more than anything else.
A veteran coach of over two decades having worked with schools, clubs, national teams – juniors and seniors – males and females, Watson has continued where former coach Trevor Straughn who was very instrumental in the community has left off.
Several schools are part of the schools’ hockey program of which Watson is the only coach at the NSC. They are Combermere, Grantley Adams Memorial, St. George Secondary, Graydon Sealy, Harrison College, Frederick Smith, St. Leonard Boys, Ellerslie, Queen’s College and defending champions The Alleyne School. Meanwhile for the primary schools, Eden Lodge, Hilda Skeene, St. George Primary and Wesley Hall are those involved.
“There has been a lot of success coming out of the school’s hockey program. I do work with both the secondary and primary schools and one of the reasons I instituted the primary school program is that I wanted players to be exposed to the sport before they go onto secondary school,” Watson explained.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
