By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Hazel Ann Regis-Buckels
A two-day weekend workshop, organized by the BVI Olympic Committee Athletes Commission focusing on expectations and behaviors at the Elmore Stoutt High School, has attracted 70 parents, athletes and coaches for Saturday’s session, which runs from 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
On Sunday, 15 administrators from five associations, clubs and schools, have signed up for their 9 a.m. to noon session. Both workshops will be facilitated by Grenada Olympian Hazel Ann Regis-Buckels, Chair of their Athletes Commission, who is also an educator and a champion of character in sport.
Commission Chairman Eldred Henry told Island Sun Sports, that since it was formed in December, they have wrestled with a few ideas of what they wanted for their first workshop.
“We now have a lot of athletes stepping out onto the world stage internationally in multiple sports, so I felt the best thing to do was to help these athletes, parents and coaches, get ready for what comes when you’re stepping on to the big stage,” he said. “Competing at a track meet on Tortola is completely different, versus being at the Olympic Games or World Championships. The mental fortitude, the discipline that it takes and how to conduct yourself.”
An athlete, Henry said, has to realize that once you step out on that world stage that you’re carrying the flag and the country on your chest and all eyes are on you. “You may not know that they’re watching you, but they’re watching you,” he said. “We saw this as the perfect opportunity to bring in a facilitator, somebody that has been through it, they know about it, and they could help us to get our people to get ready for what’s to come in the next couple of years, because I foresee in the next eight years, BVI will be a force to recon with when it comes to sports.”
Regis-Buckels said the workshop is very important as times have changed. She said that there was a time that you could do a lot of things and there was no social media, smartphones or anything to capture it, so it was not put out there.
“Now everything that you do is out there, so it’s important for us to be proactive. We do not want to wait until athletes, coaches, parents or any stakeholder, get out there and start behaving in certain ways that are not meeting expectations and it gets captured, and now your country is on blast,” she said. “We’re looked at differently, especially coming from the Caribbean. We’re small, but being small does not mean that we can’t do things accordingly. We want to be proactive to teach our younger athletes, our parents, our officials, our coaches, what it means to represent your best self.”
Regis-Buckels said the workshop is not about telling what you should and shouldn’t do. It’s simply about providing the tips, strategies and ways to handle situations when it’s presented. “At the end of the day, we’re not just representing ourselves. We’re representing our country, whether it is you’re going to Carifta Games, CAC Games, Pan Am Games, local games—you’re representing your country, your school—so it’s important to have workshops like this. I’m impressed that this is the workshop they felt is dear to their heart, and wanted to see it come to fruition.”
Saturday’s workshop, she said, will cover expected behaviors, sportsmanship, respect, integrity, how to manage your emotions and resolve conflicts. “A lot of this is going to be interactive,” Regis-Buckels said. “This is not a workshop where you come and sit and have someone talk to you. We’re going to make it very interactive, very meaningful. We’ll have ice breakers, we’ll have fun but at the same time, we’re going to learn. We’re going to talk about the impact of behavior in sport and at the end, we’re going to create a BVI Olympic Committee Athletes Commission pledge, so that we all are operating on the same level.”
