SPORTS SECTION E
CRICKET
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2018
Go Team Bahamas!
By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net eam manager Courtney Wallace said the Bahamas’ 80-member team is ready for the staging of the 2018 CARIFTA Games at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium this Easter holiday weekend. The team went through a light workout session yesterday and is getting ready to enter the Games Village at the Melia Hotel today when the visiting teams start to arrive for the games that will open on Friday night. “One of the main things that we are trying to do is to get them mentally and physically prepared, anything that we can do to ensure that they are ready for the competition,” Wallace said. “We are also trying to keep them relaxed and to make sure that they are healthy. This is a good team and they have put in the work and I’m out here every day watching them, so I think we will be very proud of their performances.” Most of the countries are expected to arrive in town today and will be staying at the Melia Hotel. Head coach Bernard Rolle said the team is looking good and he’s expecting some spectacular performances. “I’m satisfied with the way we look and I expect that we will do some spectacular things this weekend,” Rolle said. “We could look forward to our under-17 boys and girls doing very well and those relays. We will defend our house. “Jamaica, nor the other countries, are going to come here and sweep us. We are trying to win every one of the relays.” As for any predictions on the team, Rolle declined to make any, other than to say that he expects for the team to do better than the Bahamas has ever done before, including finishing third last year in Curacao behind powerhouse Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. One of those athletes who is looking forward to competing at home is sprinter Devine Parker, who will lead the under-20 girls’ division. “My preparation has been going good. I’m staying focused and training to the best of my ability to go into the games determined and ready to compete in the front of my home crowd,” said Parker, who
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will run the 100, 200 and on the 4 x 100 metre relay team. It’s been a relatively easy season for Parker, who didn’t compete that much due to an injury. But she said she’s where she wants to be physically and mentally she’s trying to ensure that she can trust God to take her where she needs to go. “Physically I feel better than last year. I feel more in shape than last year, so my only hope is that I can go into CARIFTA determined to have fun and do the best of my ability,” she stated. As for the team, Parker said they are gelling and so it’s just a matter of them coming together and performing as a team to get the job done to represent the country the best that they can at home. Tristan Hanna, one of the competitors to watch in the under-20 boys’ division, said he’s looking forward to the competition coming in from Jamaica and the other countries. “My preparation has been tough. You can’t just come out here four days of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you have to come out seven days of the week to make sure that you are ready,” he said. “I’m doing the pole vault and triple jump, so I’m looking forward to winning. I want the double gold.” Hanna said this is a wellrounded team and so the public can expect to see all areas carrying their weight. For Raymond Oriakhi, he will have his hands full
TEAM BAHAMAS members take part in a light workout session yesterday and is getting ready to enter the Games Village at the Melia Hotel today. SEE CARIFTA schedule on page 3 Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff in the under-17 division, but he’s up to the task ahead of him. “I think I’m well prepared for the CARIFTA Games,” he said. “I’m looking to medal in all of my events, the 110 and 400m hurdles, 400m and the 4 x 4. My training has been going very well, so I expect to do very well.” And Oriakhi said there’s nothing better than competing at home. “With the games being here at home, I think our chances are even better for us to perform. We have a very good team and so the public should see some good performances from us.” Jaida Knowles, a big part of the strong under-17 girls’
division, said her training has been phenomenal, so look for some great things from her. “I’ve been training to the best of my ability to be ready for the competition,” Knowles said. “You have to be ready, not just physically, but mentally, because track is a mental thing. “You have to put in your mind that track is a mental sport and you can’t be afraid of anyone. You need to be mentally strong to go out there and compete against whoever comes to race against you.” What Knowles likes is the fact that the games are home this year. “We will have our family and friends and the
junkanoo music so we have to be ready,” she said. “Jamaica is coming with an attitude, so we have to be able to block them out and focus on our races.” Knowles will be running both the 100 and 200 as well as the 4 x 100m relay and her aim is to medal, if not win all of her events. As for the team, Knowles said they are gelling together and so hopefully they will remain focused as they prepare for the competition this weekend. The games begin with the opening ceremonies at 6pm on Friday. The first session of competition starts at 9am on Saturday. The games will wrap up on Monday night.
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ANOTHER PROMOTION FOR ‘CHAMP’ By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net JERVIS “Champ” Stuart received another promotion in the New York Mets organisation, a week ahead of Minor League Baseball Opening Day. Stuart was assigned to the Las Vegas 51s, the Mets’ Triple A-affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. Based in Las Vegas, they are named for Area 51 which is located near Rachel, Nevada, about 80 miles north of Las Vegas. They play at Cashman Field which has a capacity of 9,334 people. The 51s won the PCL championship as the Stars in 1986 and 1988. The team has plans to move into Las Vegas Ballpark, a new 10,000-seat facility located in Summerlin, in 2019. In 2012, the 51s signed a Player Development Contract with the Mets. For the second consecutive offseason, Stuart has received a spring training call up from the Mets in Grapefruit League play at First Data Field in Port St Lucie, Florida. In 101 games last season with the Double-A Binghampton Rumble Ponies, Stuart led the Eastern League with 35 stolen bases, hit .222, slugging .331, an on-base percentage of .310, an OPS of .641 and five home runs. In 2016 he had a season of several milestones, including an appearance as a pinch runner in the final Grapefruit League game for the Mets in spring training. His last call up was also preluded by a stellar regular season, and an offseason spent in the Arizona Fall League. The league attracts many of the top prospects in the minor leagues and is designed for these prospects to refine their skills and perform in game settings in front of major and minor league baseball scouts and team executives, who are in attendance at almost every game. In 19 games, Stuart hit .300 with 12 runs scored, five RBI, 12 stolen bases an OBP of.329 and OPS of .729 with one home run. He continued with the Port St Lucie Mets in SingleA Advanced, which led to a Double-A call-up with Binghamton. Through 114 games in both leagues, Stuart hit .240 with 34 RBI and eight home runs. He has also totalled an OBP of .319, slugging percentage of .349 an OPS of .663 and his aforementioned 40 stolen bases. Stuart was one of 10 Bahamian players to compete for Team Great Britain at the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Brooklyn, New York.
Coleby posts double double in final game of collegiate career By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net DWIGHT Coleby posted a double double in the final game of his collegiate career, but the postseason run for his Western Kentucky Hilltoppers ended in the National Invitational Tournament semi-finals.
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The Hilltoppers’ season came to an end in a 69-64 loss to the Utah Utes in the NIT semi-finals at Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday night. Coleby finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. WKU finished the season 27-11 and they achieved the programme’s most wins in a decade. Their 38 games played tied the programme record and their three postseason victories also tied a school record as they advanced to the NIT semis for the first time since 1954. “First coming here, it was a whole new team and we had to step up and be leaders,” Coleby said. “Normally we’d step in and someone was already the leader on the team. Coach told us we needed to be leaders. That’s not really our personality to be outspoken and be leaders like that. We tried our best to help the team out.”
WESTERN Kentucky forward Dwight Coleby (22) shoots over Utah forward David Collette in the first half of the semi-finals of the NIT on Tuesday night. (AP)
They finished the season 4-2 against Power 5 conference schools. After an 8-0 run the Hilltoppers led by as much as 13 in the first half, 18-5 with about three minutes left. Utah went on an 11-0 run to eventually take the lead and the teams went into the break tied at 32. WKU last led 64-63 with 1:27 left to play, but the Utes closed the game on a 6-0. Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury has called this particular group special due to the group of players coming together quickly over the course of a single season. Senior forward Justin Johnson was the lone player on active roster who played minutes for last year’s team. Nearly every other player on the roster, including Coleby, experienced their first year with the programme. Coleby averaged 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in his lone season as a graduate transfer in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Last season with the Kansas Jayhawks, he averaged 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds per game in his lone season in Lawrence after transferring from Ole Miss. He was already set to spend the 201516 season on the sidelines as a transfer but he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during a light team workout in October 2015 and had to undergo a gruelling rehab process. “I’ve talked about our seniors all year long. They’re incredible people, they always play great, they’re the kind of people that you want to be around and you want to coach,” Stansbury said. “I told y’all one thing Dwight would average more than 1.7 like he did at Kansas. I think he surpassed all of our expectations, the one thing I knew we were getting is a quality person and when you are trying to mix a whole new team together you better have good ingredients, meaning good people and that’s where it started.”