It is amusing, sometimes, to hear criticism from those who do not offer to assist the Association in any of its efforts and only seek to pick at and pull down the small number of willing volunteers who give of their time to further the work of the Barbados Squash Rackets Association (BSRA). What is harder to take is when those who should be aware of the work of the Association offer the view that over the past year not a lot has happened with squash in Barbados.
Certainly, mistakes (a few, I would suggest) have been made. I believe that no one on the current BSRA Council will deny that we could have done better in several areas, but over the past year there have been significant achievements made by the BSRA. Perhaps one of our biggest failings may be in not widely publicizing these areas since, in my view, the BSRA has much to be proud of in the recent past in general, and since May, 2007 in particular.
Let me share a few notable accomplishments with you:
? In the Barbados National Squash Championships held in May 2007, Cheri-Ann Parris (age 16 years 9 months) became the youngest senior Ladies finalist for over 20 years. Shawn Simpson became the first man to win four straight Men’s titles, while Karen Meakins became the first lady to win seven straight Ladies? titles.
? In June 2007 Barbados once again hosted a Caribbean Referee Certification clinic with technical assistance from Squash Canada and funding from the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA). One of the world?s top referees (Mr. Graham Waters from Canada) certified another eight (8) referees from Barbados and two (2) from Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, two Barbadians (Craig Archer and Orson Simpson) were also certified as course instructors and can now deliver the course themselves and certify referees up to the B level. This Caribbean Officiating Programme for Squash (COPS) was created from scratch in 2005 through the hard work of Barbadians.
? In July 2007 the Barbados Boys and Girls teams both finished 4th in their respective team competitions at the Junior Caribbean Squash Championships in Tortola, BVI. Cheri-Ann Parris moved up one age group to win the Caribbean GU-19 title and in the process claimed her fifth straight Caribbean age group title. At age 16 years 11 months Cheri-Ann is also the second youngest holder of this title in the past two decades.
? In August 2007 only the passage of Hurricane Dean across the Caribbean prevented the Barbados Ladies, Men and Veterans teams from sweeping all before them at CASA XVI in Jamaica. In the Individual competitions there were four Barbadian players ? an unprecedented number ? contesting the semi-finals and two of them reached the finals where Gavin Cumberbatch created history by becoming the first Barbadian player to win gold in any Caribbean Squash Championship. Karen Meakins placed second, Cheri-Ann Parris placed third, and at 17 is also the youngest female player to reach the last four in a senior Caribbean event for at least 20 years. Shawn Simpson also finished fourth.
? In September 2007 Barbados was the only Caribbean country represented at the World Squash Federation?s (WSF) 8th biennial World Squash Coaching and Development Conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Barbados was well represented by two coaches (Richard Walcott and Marlon White) as well as an administrator (Norman Rice) whose excellent report on this conference earned him high praise from the BOA who partially funded this trip.
? In October 2007, Cheri-Ann Parris won a bronze medal for Barbados in the Ladies Individuals at the 6th Junior Pan American Squash Championships held in Kingston, Jamaica. This is only the second individual medal ever won by a Barbadian at this U-19 event.
? Orson Simpson, who is one of only a handful of B-1 certified referees in the Caribbean, traveled in December 2007 to Chennai, India to attend the 9th biennial World Squash Refereeing Conference. He also refereed the first match of the 21st ICL World Men’s Team Squash Championships that was played on the centre (all glass) show court and officiated in five other matches, including one involving the World #1, Amr Shabana of Egypt. Once again, Barbados was the only Caribbean country represented, and the three year old COPS refereeing programme was highly praised by the presenters at this world conference.
? Thus far in 2008, and as a direct result of the successes of Barbados squash players at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Cartagena, Colombia the BSRA has received from the National Sports Council (NSC) an unprecedented level of funding to assist four ?Elite? and six ?Emerging? athletes.
? The three bronze medals won at those CAC Games in 2006 have moved Squash to the forefront of local sports federations. Only eight other National Federations have won as many medals at all the CAC Games dating back as far as 1962. In fact, Karen Meakins and Gavin Cumberbatch, who both won two medal each, are among a mere 17 athletes out of the 1500 or so who have represented Barbados at Major Games and who have won two or more medals in total.
I put it to you that any reasonable person must conclude that these are significant achievements for such a tiny Association on our nation?s sporting landscape. Just imagine what we could accomplish if we hard working administrators had more help!
Craig Archer
BSRA President
April 23, 2008
