The Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) has an obligation to drive important sports initiatives despite its jurisdictional constraints. There is no doubt that although the jury is still out in an overall sense on the capacity of the present administration, there have been some refreshing signs that contrast sharply with the previous leadership.
For instance, it was significant for BOC Vice President Don Cornish to frankly express personal views from his present delegation position as Chef de Mission at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, about the dilemma our team sports face.
He made the point that I have emphasized often in this space, regarding the uphill struggle that confronts federations of team sports in particular, being unable to get national squads together so that they can mesh and find consistency with each other before going into regional and international competition to represent their country.
This is good leadership on the part of a BOC representative. Another voice on the issue is important and the view here is that the rest of the BOC should adopt the approach to be forward on matters that would definitely make a difference on our sporting landscape.
The key for the national sports program would be for the central administration to elevate the budget status of sports. The maximum single fiscal grant for core sports federations is $80,000. While the gesture ought not be frowned upon, indeed it is just a pittance in terms of the requirements, especially for team sports federations.
One excursion into regional or international competition could cost that much and more when you are dealing with a score plus of athletes and officials. I believe that a $200,000 grant would be a modest amount to provide the core federations annually. I spent a few business days in Cuba at the start of the Pan American Games. Cuban television followed the games fully and I got the opportunity to watch a good bit of the basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball (beach and court) matches.
I concluded that as far back as 40 years ago we had teams in all of those disciplines that would have competed very favorably with the best the region has to offer these days.
Back then there was not much of a proximity problem with the athletes. Most of our elite athletes were based here so they practiced together often. The percentage of athletes that was away in college and universities melted very easily into the various preparation programs.
Now the climate is different. A great number of our elite athletes are based abroad, really all over the world, Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. Thus, it's a serious financial challenge for the federations to get them all in place for camps to appropriately fortify the athletes for competition with their regional and world peers.
We have not been able to qualify in recent years for the major world competitions in team sports. This is sad, given our history. Cornish helps to put the problem on the table, but more has to be done. There should be collective lobbying to the political powers for a national sports budget allocation adjustment.
That's the answer. Unless sufficient funds become available to the federations the team sports situation will never change.
(To respond to this column, kindly contact Fred Sturrup at fredericksturrup@gmail.com)

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