NSC “Teach Them Young” summer camp grooming young champions
By Romario Samaroo
The National Sports Commission (NSC) is continuing to show its support in the development of youth in sports through its ongoing programme, ‘Teach Them Young’ Summer Camp.
Some of the participants during one of the sessions
The programme commenced on July 28 and has been hosting its activities on the D’urban Park tarmac three days a week.
It is expected to run for three weeks but Coach of the programme, Mark Whyte has indicated that if there is a need to extend the camp, it should be extended.
To date, the programme has attracted nearly 100 students from schools across the country, aged from as young as seven.
The course not only targets cricket and football but a wide variety of sports including, circle tennis, boxing, wind ball cricket, among others.
Whyte highlighted that the programme not only targets technical training such as formation, but reaches out to the more theoretical aspect of the game such as the rules, adding that through this programme, it would help to identify special talents in different games and groom those talents.
These sessions gave extensive details into the game, particularly useful for those who were new to the game.
Personnel from the National Museum had also participated in the event by running a session, Michael Paris, Guyanese Olympian, came and had a discussion with the children.
Whyte added that the programme was the first of its kind and would like to see it develop enough to have every school in the country involved.
Even though Whyte commended the efforts made, there were still some minor hiccups along the way and noted that there are areas to improve, heading into the future.
One such improvement he wanted to see is the security.
“If you notice, D’urban Park is open and people walk in and out of here without us knowing what their purpose is, however, if we improve on this, more people would be inclined to participate.” the coach commented.
Nigel Hope, another coach at the project, said that this camp was a success, having averaged an 80 percent development in the knowledge and skill level of the sports, by the children.
Hope went on to point out that his personal goal in this programme was to have more females involved in sports.
He made it known that most of the sports in the country is dominated by the males but he is looking to incorporate the females and advise teams to start develop a female team in every sport.
Hope mentioned that there will be a boys and girls wind ball programme coming up when school reopens which will be an Under 16 tournament throughout the country. Through that, a National team will be selected to go to Barbados and represent Guyana.
