WITH many St. Cuthbert’s Mission youths showing an interest in sports, the Deputy Toshao, Leroy Gonputh of the Amerindian Village located in Region Four, is lobbying for permanent coaching support and upgrades to several sporting facilities in the community.
Gonputh, in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle, said that within the last year, sports has played an integral role in the development of the community’s youth and children, with a few of them being given the opportunity to represent Guyana at international games.
“There has been a big boost from sports; recently, one of our girls made the national team to represent Guyana in the Under-14 Football Championship in Miami,” Gonputh said, adding: “Besides that, we had a lot of other girls who were called to trials, and we had about six young males who were called to represent Guyana.”
And while the community receives some measure of support from the Georgetown Football Club in the area of coaching, Gonputh believes that with a permanent one based there, much more can be achieved.
“We have football and cricket taking place here every weekend; we have lots of sports going on right here in our community,” the deputy village chief said, adding: “With the football, we have a club from Georgetown that comes every weekend, but it would really be nice if the government could assist us with a permanent coach.”
He also noted that while the community has the necessary gear, the sporting facilities are in dire need of upgrading to accommodate the local athletes.
“The grounds need more upgrading; recently the government donated a set of gear, like footballs and cricket bats, but our grounds need upgrading to match the standard of the outside grounds,” he said.
Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Charles Ramson, in recent interview with this newspaper on the sidelines of the National Toshaos Conference (NTC) back in July, had disclosed that the government will be working on offering more support to Indigenous communities, and that with the launch of the first National Sports Academy here, much support will be made available as the government works on seeing how programmes can be extended to the hinterland communities.
“There is a big opportunity for us to integrate the sport programmes in villages into our own national programme,” Minister Ramson said, adding: “I told them that we started the National Sports Academy, which is the first time that it is ever being done in the history of the country also in the region.”
A training manual, he’d said, will be provided to offer structured training to athletes, trainers and coaches.
“There isn’t a national sports academy in the region, and we have that here in Guyana. And, so far, it has been really moving well. And, to integrate them into the programme, we are going to be able to get the training manual, so that they are not just playing sports, but they can actually go in and do training as part of a structured programme,” Minister Ramson had told the Guyana Chronicle.
The National Sports Academy, the first ever institution of its kind here, was launched in December 2021, with 12 sporting activities being offered. The academy’s curriculum is one that is similar to the education system, as it allows the athletes to progress in various stages.
