On Target
April 28, 2017

Setting aside differences in Vincy sports

When stakeholders of sports war with their words, then follow up with their actions; organizations consistently bicker at one another and when coaches refuse to have at least a professional relationship, the respective sporting disciplines are not better off.

These are the real life issues crippling the already disadvantaged sporting matrix here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The stories are plenty as to how such divisions, frictions and reluctance to co-operate are stifling attempts at moving forward.

A case in point is the current stand-off between Nice Radio and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation.

This prolonged antagonism is namely with the principal members of both entities, but can be extended if an amicable solution is not pursued swiftly.

The actions of the men have left the football public starved of much needed live commentary on matches of the ongoing National Club Championships.

That accustomed live broadcast of the matches added a fillip of interest to the championships, and wooed more patrons to the Victoria Park.

Refusing to take advantage of this type of publicity does no good for the promotion of the sport, as the commentary reaches the masses, not only here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but others who have a deep interest for what is taking place with our football.

Either man should offer the olive branch and put the personal differences aside and get football commentary going again.

Similarly, track and field is being robbed of some technical cooperation with the strained relationships between two of this country’s more accomplished, knowledgeable and certified coaches.

At the centre of a seemingly eternal, abrasive situation are top coaches Michael “Lord Have Mercy” Ollivierre and Godfrey “Fuzzy” Harry.

One can only envisage where athletics could go if the two combine their years of coaching experience and morph their reservoir of knowledge, then dispense it on the young athletes.

Surely, St Vincent and the Grenadines’ track and field will be the better for it.

Whilst people are free moral agents and have minds of their own, these two men can help effect the technical changes which SVG’s track and field needs.

Whilst they are not the most major problems affecting the sport here, they collectively can help heal the wounds which fracture track and field.

On the wider national scale, there are those policymakers who, for vendetta or party political reasons, either stall or block certain developments, for others not to score political points.

Some are blinded by their political affiliation and forget that St Vincent and the Grenadines’ sporting development should be given preference.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is a relatively small place. Hence, heads of national sporting organizations’ political choices will be known, based on pronouncements.

But should deliberate cogs be put in the way, and decisions deferred, to prevent certain persons on the other side of the political fence from “looking good”?

Such institutionalized actions have no place on the contour lines of our sports.

The list of instances is not exhaustive, but rather highlights some of the ones which go deeper into the fabric of progress.

The task of fixing human intricacies and personality traits lies with the individual themselves, who should search within and acknowledge that they are the problem and they could be the solution as well.

Sometimes when the route of mediation is traversed, things turn for the worse, as stuff is unearthed.

Change in thinking, attitude and reconciliation has to be the best course of action for those who are involved in the discord.

But everyone guilty of slowing down progress must, before they attempt to make changes, rearrange their schemata such that sports is the priority and not themselves.