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Sports National
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
November 16 - 22, 2013
Provo Hockey League:
Gators make it 3-0 – Lightning gain revenge on Hurricanes THE Gansevoort Gators pushed their winning streak to 3-0 when action continued in the Provo Hockey League at the Graceway Sports Centre last Saturday. The Mini Division leaders, the Gators, edged out the Saunders and Company Owls 4-2 with Jake Whent scoring two goals and Zoe Diotte-Joly and Ronin Maclaren one each. Aiden Paisley and Joshua Saunders scored one a-piece for the Owls. Michael Saunders (three goals and one assist) and Jaden Robinson (two goals) again played well as their team, the Digicel 4G Comets, defeated the Sailrock Lobsters 7-4. Jack Blain and Ethan Brubaker (one goal and one assist) were also on target for the winners. Sam Connolly led the Lobsters with a pair, while there was one each for Veejay Kalliecharen, and
Giovanni Astwood. BANTAM DIVISION Last season’s Bantam champions, the Coco Bistro Lightning, also gained revenge over the J&W Construction Hurricanes in the third week of play. The defending champs were able to keep Orrin Campbell, who had scored 18 goals in three games, to a single successful strike. Javid Shearer had scored twice, but he could not match the scoring prowess of Sebastian Turbyfield with four goals. Prior to that clash Campbell had scored five goals in his team’s 8-7 win over the Gracebay Resorts Surge. Shearer had three assists while Brubaker had two successful strikes and Joe Canham one. For the Surge Bradley Ayer scored four goals and made two assists while Zarek Swann added
two goals and an assist and Theo Wheldon one. MIDGET DIVISION The Gracebay Car Rentals and Sales Panthers and the Scotiabank Sharks kept their undefeated streaks intact after drawing 3-3. Cole Nickeson scored all of the Sharks’ goals while Gabriel Diotte-Joly scored two and Darius Coakley the other for the Panthers. The Twa Marcelin Wolf Pirates bounced back from their five-goal loss, against the Panthers in weektwo, to inflict a simple margin of defeat (9-4) on the BCQS Flames. Liam Delancy had four goals while Kyle Cox and Dockarick Barrett added three and two goals respectively. The Flames were led by Gregory Lewis who scored three goals and an assist.
TCIFA officially separates from Green
THE Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) will announce the appointment of a new technical director by the end of the month. Earlier this week the local body officially revealed that it will not renew the contract of Englishman Matthew Green. Green was instrumental in the grassroots development of the sport over the last few years, but not all in the local executive felt that he was the man to take football to the next level. Things got sour when a BBC article was done a few weeks back on the then technical director with the headline: “The Englishman in charge of the worst team in the world.” In an official press release on Thursday the local body pointed out that in September Green was told that his contract would not be renewed. The official separation started on Wednesday November 13.
Matthew Green was the technical director of the TCIFA for several years.
“The TCIFA thanks Mr. Green for his contribution during his tenure and wishes him well with his future endeavour.” The release stated that the current weekday regional programmes as well as the Saturday grassroots programmes will continue as normal on the same dates and times. The release also stated that the TCIFA is working swiftly on a replacement.
Josh for Sports
The history of athletics part IV FUNDRAISERS THE TCAAA did not beg for funds. We raised funds by staging a 100 miles relay-a-thon around the island of Grand Turk. It took between 6-7 hours to complete. Friends, relatives and business sponsored their own athlete based on the amount of miles they ran. There were two teams competing against each other. Each athlete ended up completing GT about once—about 10 miles. At the end of the relay, which concluded on South Beach, where the cruise centre now is, a cookout was held to further raise funds for our CARIFTA team. RAFFLE AND BALL On March 3rd, 1978 our final event took place at the Parade Ground on the basketball court at the high school. Tickets were sold—live music performed. A raffle, which had tickets sold for two months, was also drawn. First prize was an all-expense paid trip to CARIFTA for two, while there were other neat prizes.
plus the verification of the athletes’ dates of births. The next order of business was to tape up measurements of their various dresses. I had to take those particulars to the University of Florida where I contracted with Coach Jimmy Carnes, who also had a sporting goods store. He supplied our country’s first national athletics uniforms.
By Joshua Gardiner Now that the first CARIFTA team was chosen, (23 athletes), the time had come for us to conclude our preparations for the 1978 Nassau, Bahamas Games. Selecting that first team was an emotional experience. In my opinion and in my heart, I believed that everyone on the squad should have been chosen, but realistically that was not possible. FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS First and foremost of all, was the necessity of making sure that all travelling documents were in order,
GAINESVILLE While at the University of Florida I secured our team’s entry to participate in the Florida Relays and the Lady Gator Relays. At the same time I met Coach Brooks Johnson of Santa Fe Junior College. One of my former athletes, sprinter Caroline Delancey (the sister of Beatrice Delancey), who I had coached in 1973 in Freeport, Grand Bahama, was a student on a track scholarship. Coach Johnson was the US Olympic Women’s Track coach in 1976. He and I became fast friends. PROGRESS GALORE While making rapid progress
towards finalising our entries to the Florida Relays and CARIFTA Games, we were also noticed by the IAAF. The international body asked us to send a representative to a regional meeting of their body in Puerto Rico to be considered for membership. That letter was signed by the Regional Director Dr. Armadio Francis. It was not possible for me to personally attend. I requested that a volunteer from among our executive represent us. Only Mr. Leslie Musgrove, who was recommended to join the TCAAA as a government representative, specifically by the Hon. Jags McCartney, was available. His role was to act as a liaison between the government and the TCAAA for the purpose of channelling and monitoring whatever funds we received from the government. Thus Mr. Musgrove’s official status became that of fundraiser for the TCAAA. While I was in Florida, Mr. Musgrove represented us in Puerto Rico, where we received provisional membership.
FLORIDA RELAYS One week before the Easter weekend 1978 CARIFTA Games (Nassau, Bahamas), our CARIFTA team caught the Electra flight where they met me at the airport. We then went to the Greyhound bus station where we chartered a bus to Gainesville, some 8-10 hours away. After three days of acclimatisation we literally got our feet wet in competition. We won three medals: Gold—Corina Capron 14 and U, 100M; Silver— Dale Taylor 14 and U, 800M; and Bronze—Edith Been 14 and U—400M. CARIFTA GAMES I delegated Coach Brooks Johnson to accompany our team to Nassau to the CARIFTA Games. I had to go to Canada to get us into the Commonwealth Games, slated for that summer. Time was short and plenty, we won a bronze at our first CARIFTA through U-20 javelin thrower Andre Taylor. He lived with me, I coached him.