Call raised to better market Windward Islands Schools Games

St Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of Sports, Orando Brewster, believes greater efforts need to be made to market the Windward Islands Schools’ Games, said to be one of the oldest in the Caribbean, having started around 1912. And he is looking forward to SVG taking the lead as host for the 2025 edition of the games.

“We’re hoping that in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we market the Windward Island Games so that we would have a lot of support, not only from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but from our brothers and sisters in Grenada, Saint Lucia and Dominica,” Brewster said at the opening last month of a two-day meeting of the organising committee.

“We want to open it up, making sure that this year, 2025, is an exceptional year for the Windward Islands Schools Games. I must mention that we had planned last year… but due to Hurricane Beryl and the disruption that it caused, we had to basically take a one-year sabbatical or hiatus from the games.”

SVG has signalled its readiness to host the games which will be held from July 26 to August 3, 2025 at various venues across the mainland.

“… I have high expectations from our young people when we welcome them to the shores of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, because I know the games is not only about what happens on the day that we actually play, but I always say sports is played on and off the field or the hard court, or wherever you go, and they’re ambassadors to our various countries.”

Among the concerns raised by a cross-section of stakeholders is the use of hotels and, or guest houses to accommodate the various teams. Chester Morgan of Team Athletics SVG, was among those who raised this issue at the opening session of the May 22-23 meeting, pointing out that when teams previously were housed in schools, it provided greater opportunity for camaraderie among athletes and their charges.

“The hotel system now has killed that, because at the time when you get back to the village, you cannot see even your own team. We used to be at Windward, making noise during the games, you don’t see that any more, because I don’t know the net ballers; net ballers don’t know the athletes. When you have that school system where everybody is in a room, I think it’s something we need to look at,” the coach said.

“I know some people say the hotel is the best thing, but I think for these games, it’s really not. This is the objective of the games that it was created [that] we have that camaraderie.”

Minister Brewster noted at the meeting that he has said to the Local Organising Committee that the 2025 edition “is not so much the games, but the logistics and the management of all of the teams that are participating in the games, that will be one of the biggest aspects that we have to pay close attention to”.

Officials of the games committee on the first afternoon of their meeting visited a number of facilities, including the Chili Playing Field and Hard Court in Georgetown, the Brighton Playing Field, and the Diamond athletic track. On day two the group visited possible accommodation sites, and also the Arnos Vale Sports Complex.

The tour group included chair of the Local Organising Committee, Semone Richardson; Kerlan Peters, Director of Sports, Grenada; Director of Sports of Saint Lucia, Clivus Jules, and Sports Officer, Wayne Bente; and Dominica’s Director of Sports, Trevor Shillingford.