Cricket school having positive impact

The many days and nights playing cricket are memories that Jason Parris relishes.

Walking home from Eagle Hall Primary on evenings as a child and rather than heading straight to his house, as his mother would have liked, Jason would instead scope out any cricket ground he passed in the St. Michael community hoping for the opportunity to play the sport that he loves. On the way, he might stop at Ferniehurst, or go across to Deacon’s Farm, even the cricket pitch at Westbury Road wasn’t too far for him to walk.

Laughing as he reminisced during an interview with Barbados TODAY, Jason said that by the time he finally reached his Ashdeane Village, Black Rock, St. Michael home, the sun would have set, his school clothes drenched in sweat and his mother would be waiting to give him a good old fashion “father’s correction”.

That’s how his love for cricket blossomed and for more than three decades has been unwavering.

Jason moved from playing village cricket to becoming more serious while a student of the Ellerslie Secondary School. So much so, that he served as captain of both the Barbados Under-15 and Under-19 youth teams. While he didn’t get the opportunity to play for the West Indies cricket team, he has represented Barbados at every level; and played in eight first-class and eight List A matches for Barbados and Combined Campuses and Colleges. Furthermore, he worked for nine years with the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Kiddies Cricket Youth development programme.

This devotion has been impetus for the establishment of The Cricket School by Coach P. The after school and weekend programme, which began its operations in October this year, is being undertaken in association with the Jofra Archer Cricket Academy at the latter’s base at Ocean City, St. Philip.

Aspiring cricketer Jahkeem Pollard (right) took the opportunity to get words of encouragement from Barbados-born England international Jofra Archer during one of the school’s mentorship sessions.

“I absolutely love the game,” Jason gushed while explaining that The Cricket School by Coach P was developed to facilitate the development of young players.

The school caters mainly one-on-one, peer, and small group coaching to primary school aged players up to age 15. This group is what Jason considers as the foundation of cricket and cricket development in the Caribbean.

“Right now, we know that West Indies cricket is definitely on the back foot in terms of they are not doing very well. In addition, during the pandemic there hasn’t been any real youth tournaments in the Caribbean going on and we have lost some of our young cricketers during this time. So the question is, ‘what is the backup plan for the West Indies in terms of developing young players to replace the ones that we know are going out of the cricket now?’.

“My son, Justin, is absolutely in love with the game and for me I would have watched him during the pandemic as well kind of struggle to cope with not being able to play the game and that was one of my motivations for pushing my cricket school. Being able to keep him and other youngsters active in the sport,” he said.

In addition to being a WICB Level 2 coach, Jason is also a qualified teacher. This is why when he founded the school it was done with the goal of being holistic in its direction. Hence, the focus is not solely on skills but also academia and mentorship. He contended that in developing these young players they have to be catered to on the field in terms of the skills of the game and also in terms of developing them as young thinkers. As a result, one of the requirements for participation in the school is the maintenance of at least a 60 per cent average in core subjects.

On top of that, the cricket school will host some master classes also, where legends of the game, guys who have played cricket for Barbados and the West Indies and who have contributed greatly to the development of cricket, have been invited to share insight and advice with the youngsters.

“It is off to a pretty decent start. . . We also have Jofra Archer on board as a mentor and when he was here [recently] he was doing a lot of work with the young boys, having chats with them, coming out and practising with them. Also, the current West Indies test captain, Kraigg Brathwaite, is on board as a mentor. . . and he is going to be part of our first skills assessment starting December 20 to the 24. This assessment is basically like an end of term evaluation to showcase their talent and see if they would have grasped some of the concepts that were taught to them throughout the term,” he said.

The student deemed the most improved player will receive a full kit of gear compliments of the Barbados Cricket Supplies at the end of the four-day clinic.

“I strongly believe that these youngsters have to have persons to look up to. I find that young men are able to learn a lot more and faster when they are getting those one-on-one interactions outside of the big groups. Coaching in big groups will have its benefits as well but for me I’m a strong believer of one-to-one instruction. So for me, I definitely want to cater to that. Sometimes guys are very shy and they don’t want to speak out or ask questions because young people tend to think that the questions that they are asking are silly questions and sometimes they are intimidated to come out and speak in front of their peers, but with one-on-one interactions this really is good for those kinds of students who are full of nerves or shy,” Parris added.

One of Parris’ dreams is for The Cricket School by Coach P to be able to create a cricket scholarship where a young player or players could get the chance to further develop in England or other cricket-playing nations to facilitate their education and develop their cricketing skills.

“Another dream is to have my own facility where I can have in-door classrooms where I can obviously cater to the classes and development of these young people. I also want to have courses for parents because I think that parents need to buy in to be able to facilitate or develop a young cricketer, or sports person. Some people tend to think they can’t have a professional career in cricket unless they are picked for the West Indies team. Everybody cannot go on to play for the West Indies but they’re young players who can go on and contribute to cricket in another form or fashion.

“There are some people who can be a CEO at the BCA, you can have somebody being developed into the Minister of Sport, a trainer, a cricket coach, sports science, sports medicine. There are lots of jobs that are connected to cricket and sports that are not highlighted. For example, Barbadian Peter Clarke who is Cricket Australia Women’s Psychologist and Cricket Australia Male and Female Pathway Psychologist. So there is no doubt of other opportunities out there when it comes to cricket and sport. It is not always that you are going to make it to the top . . .  but there are jobs that you can be facilitated within. I want to also be able to open those kinds of doors so people can see the opportunities in which to get a career in sport.

The many plans Jason has for the school in 2022 have already begun to take shape and he expressed excitement about them unfolding in the new year.

He added: “So much time has been lost, we are now going into three years of pandemic and that has been a very difficult time. And yes, we would have lost some cricketers and if we don’t try to save these ones we are going to lose even more. So, this cricket school is just here to save the next generation of cricketers and point them in a new or the next direction where they’re going to have academic and sport working together to impact their development and their cricketing careers.” (KC)