By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Hazel Ann Regis-Buckels
BVI Olympic Committee Athletes Commission member Kennard Dawson said he was encouraged by the large turnout, which included not only athletes and coaches from Tortola and Virgin Gorda, but moms who brought their children to Saturday’s behaviors and expectations workshop, held at the Elmore Stoutt High School.
The workshop was facilitated by Grenada Olympian Hazel Ann Regis-Buckels, who’s also their Athletes Commission Chair. Since it was the first activity of the Commission, Dawson told Island Sun Sports that they didn’t know what to expect. “It was a rainy day, bad weather, but seeing everybody coming out from Virgin Gorda and all across Tortola, was really encouraging to see,” he said. “I thought the engagement was really good. At first, they were a bit shy, but as they got comfortable, they opened up and were a part of everything given to them. I think they walked away with a lot of really important knowledge that can help boost our athletes in the future.”
Soccer moms and BVIFA referees, Deryn Smart brought her son and daughter and Janelle Scatliffe, brought her son, are involved in both football and track and field.
“I think it was an amazing workshop. It was hands-on and it was very interactive. It’s a lot that we need to take away and work on,” Smart said, hoping that her children gleaned a lot of what Regis-Buckels said. “Especially when it comes to attitude and expectations and applying themselves in a positive light. I’m hoping I can see the changes in their attitudes from henceforth.”
‘Well put together’ and ‘informative’ was how Scatliffe described the workshop. “I hope that the athletes who were here today, put into effect the things that they have learned, because it will help keep them out of trouble,” she said. “It will also help them manage any issues they encounter during training or even while representing the BVI.”
Manique Kendall said that he learned that you must be disciplined in sport. “You have to respect everyone around you and I also learned about friendship,” said Kendall, who said he was disciplined. “I don’t know how others see me, but this will make me become better towards others and I’ll listen.”
Tiondre Frett, who won Carifta Games U17 Boys 100 and 200m silver medals this year and 200m bronze last year, said that the workshop was a good experience for the younger athletes and the seniors. “I’m looking forward to it next year. I learned that you don’t have to answer everything, no matter how vex you are,” he said. “Just learn to breathe and calm down.”
Double Carifta Games U17 Girls sprint finalist M’Kenzii Crabbe, said it was good for the high school senior’s to learn from the workshop before they go off to college. “I learned that parents should be supportive, rather than just talking down, saying the athlete didn’t do this or that good, rather than uplifting the kids more,” she said.
Regis-Buckles said that she thought the workshop was really impactful, because the majority of times that she has conducted similar workshops, there’s a huge list of people registered, but on the day of, they don’t show up. “I was very impressed with the BVI, because we had over 70 participants at this workshop,” she said. “I was also impressed with the engagement. It’s a Saturday, and although it was a long workshop, athletes, parents, coaches, everyone was really engaged. We were able to get through our activities, have them do role play and just really understand what the expectations are when it comes to representing your best self. This workshop was about expectations and behaviors and they were not only able to discuss it, but to do role play and model what that looks like, which we really wanted from them.”
Regis-Buckels said getting them to understand how you behave in certain settings, the things they would do to resolve conflict and how to communicate effectively were all addressed.
“The most impactful ending for this workshop was creating the BVIOC sporting pledge, which every group had an opportunity to create and share and now the Athletes Commission will use that to create their own pledge,” she said. “It was a great mixture of athletes from different sports, they were learning from other sports and meeting other people and that’s what building a community is all about.”
On Sunday, Regis-Buckels said the BVIOC and sports leaders had an opportunity to hear about what’s going on locally, but most importantly, the things they must be mindful of taking leadership roles and preparing for succession planning, including practices and procedures for when others are elected to leadership roles.
