09th
Feburary 2010
Early Preparation
for 2010 Windward Island School Games
Anthony De Beauville
 With
exactly 166 days to go, host country St.Lucia
will be looking to make amends at the Annual
Windward Island School’s Games that is
scheduled for Thursday 22nd – Saturday
31st July 2010. St.Lucia finished at the bottom
of the points table in 2009 in St.Vincent and
the Grenadines, its worse ever showing in years.
To date plans are said to be moving at a steady
pace as organizers have already identified the
Gros Islet Secondary School to be the Games
Village for the nine day showpiece between the
islands.
Meanwhile, according to officials from the Ministry
of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports,
they are pleased that the commencement of the
training sessions in preparation for participation
for the championship will be conducted in five
sporting disciplines namely volleyball, athletics,
basketball, football, and netball in the south
and north of the island.
Interestingly well over two hundred and fifty
participants including team officials of the
four Windward Islands are expected to be present
on island for the annual championship.
Like previous years information has already
been sent out to the various school principals,
namely:- Babonneau Secondary, Anse Ger Secondary,
Castries Comprehensive Secondary, Bocage Secondary,
Choiseul Secondary, Ciceron Secondary, Corinth
Secondary, Entrepot Secondary, George Charles
Secondary ,Gros Islet Secondary, Leon Hess Comprehensive
Secondary, Micoud Secondary, Piaye Secondary,
S.D.A. Academy, St. Joseph’s Convent,
St. Mary’s College, Vide Bouteille Secondary
Vieux-Fort Comprehensive Secondary and Vieux-Fort
Technical Secondary, and Soufriere Comprehensive
Secondary.
St.Lucia Youth and Sports Minister Lenard Montoute
described St.Lucia’s performance as miserable
in St.Vincent and the Grenadines in an interview
with this reporter just days after the team
returned home, Montoute said “We did well
in Volleyball and Men’s Basketball but
from my understanding we did not have a pure
track and field team. We performed dismally
in track and field, and did not live up to our
expectations in netball and soccer. I think
in light of the fact that St. Lucia is going
to host the games in 2010 we must review what
happened, find out what went wrong, find out
whether there was inadequate preparation leading
up to the games, and begin now to plan for 2010
as we will be at home. Certainly, we cannot
put on this miserable performance in St. Lucia.
We have to ensure we do far better in terms
of team preparation, not just physically in
terms of technique, but also mentally.
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“With
preliminary discussion with some of the officials,
who travelled with the team the mental aspect
and attitude combined with the mental preparation
was not quite there, so the St.Lucia team
did not display any toughness, and this can
create some uneasiness in the area of sports.”
the Sports Minister noted. “As a Ministry
we need to look back as to what went wrong
after the final evaluation and ensure we begin
to prepare. We know the games are going to
be held, we also know that we are hosting,
so there should be no excuses why we shouldn’t
be preparing from now.”
