Saint Lucia has announced its 62-athlete contingent to the 2019 Winlott/CBN Windward Islands Schools Games.
The students were presented in a press conference
this morning at the Ministry of Youth Development & Sports after undergoing months-long rigorous training in the disciplines being contested: Basketball (Male & Female), Football, Netball, Track & Field and Volleyball (Male & Female).
Dominica is set to host this year's edition of the regional event from 28th July to 4th August. Saint Lucia's team is scheduled to fly out on
Friday. Ahead of the trip, athletes were reminded of their training by
their Team Manager, Wayne Benti. "I want to congratulate every single one of you for making the team, putting in the effort to make the team. When we go out there the captains of the various teams, they are our leaders and I am expecting them to lead their team and follow through with the various coaches. In Vieux Fort we were dealing with five things we have to work on; our discipline, respect for self and others, responsibility, showing empathy and safety," Benti says.
W"e have to understand each other and work with each other throughout the ten days we will be in Dominica."
As Saint Lucia bids to break Grenada's eight year winning streak at the Games, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Youth Development & Sports, Mrs. Liota Charlemagne-Mason charged the athletes to secure an unshared victory "Last year we came a joint second with Saint Vincent & The Grenadines and this year we are expecting to do better on that performance. I know that most of you have been training hard. Your determination and hard work has paid off and has given you a spot to represent Team Saint Lucia... Compete as hard as you can, as fair as you can. We need it to be one winner this year, we don't want a joint first, we do not want a joint second as last year, we want to be first and it means that if all of our disciplines give the best of themselves there is no doubt in my mind that we will become victorious at the end," Charlemagne-Mason says.
Mrs. Mason also congratulated the athletes on making the final cut and wished them a safe journey and overall fulfilling experience in Dominica. The Ministry also sought to allay concerns over the accommodations for athletes on an island, storm-battered in the last hurricane season. Chaperoning the contingent is National Schools Sports Coordinator, Mrs. Isabel Alexander-Marquis.
"Dominica has made remarkable progress and they have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable. For all of us who thought that we would be housed in a school setting, let me appease you from now, it is not a school setting, it is almost like a hotel setting, a villa setting, you will be roomed. So we are asking for respect and responsibility from you when you go into those rooms," Alexander-Marquis reveals.
Other team officials to accompany the athletes are coaches Cuthbert Modeste, Shem Maxwell, Denis Saint Clair, Solomon Alexander, Ron Du Murville, Germain Thomas and physiotherapist Makeba Alcide.