Monday, July 13, 2009

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Olympic coach to head CCCAN team By DAHALIA SMITH ~ NG Sports Reporter ~ dahalia@nasguard.com: Former two-time Olympic and six-time World Championships coach Michael Stuart will serve as the Head Coach of the 14-member Bahamian national team which arrived in Venezuela safely yesterday, to compete at the Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CCCAN) Championships. The CCCAN team is scheduled to start competing on Wednesday and return to New Providence, Monday, July 6. The event is a 2010 Olympic Youth Games qualifier. Stuart, a veteran coach of 30 years, is convinced the team will benefit greatly from his world-class experience. "I have taken swimmers to a higher level in the past and knowing that alone would bring some sort of calmness to the children," he said. This will be Stuart's first attendance at a CCCAN meet, but he has high expectations based on the performances turned in this past weekend at the 38th RBC National Swimming Championships. Stuart is also a former coach of a double Olympic medalist. "This was a good warm-up for CCCAN," he said about the RBC Swimming Nationals. "I don't think a lot of these children swam on the weekend without tapering, so from here we will rest them a little bit more and hopefully they will move on to a higher level. That is how strong they look at this point. I've looked at the team members preliminary information and we have a lot of swimmers who are seeded well. Our 11-12 boys and girls should do really well as far as winning medals and scoring is concerned. We have a couple girls in the 13-14 division like Bria Deveaux, who has an outstanding shot at winning some medals. In addition, great things are expected from Matthew Lowe, Evante Gibson and Laron Morley. Also, the relays are very strong," evaluated the former Olympic coach. Bahamas Swimming Federation (BSF) President Algernon Cargill said elevating BSF coaches certification compared to coaches like Stuart, will become priority. "We are lucky to have an American who is qualified to coach and travel with our team," he said. "He volunteered his time away from his contract with the Barracudas Swim Club to coach our CCCAN team. One of the challenges we have in The Bahamas is the development of coaches. Coaches have several levels and that is from level one to five. Currently, there are very few level five coaches in The Bahamas. In fact, the only level five coach in the country is Andy Knowles, so one of the things we have to do as a federation is develop more coaches. This is something that we are going to focus on for the next couple of years. We expect for the CCCAN team to do well after competing intensely for the past four days," he added. Competition will be held in four age groups for boys and girls, namely 11-12, 13-14, 15-17 and 18-and-over. There are five girls and nine boys named to the team. The girls include Laura Morley and Taryn Smith in the 11-12 age group, Bria Deveaux in the 13-14 age group and Ashley Butler and Ariel Weech in the 15-17 age group. The boys include Dionisio Carey and Dustin Tynes in the 11-12 age group, Evante Gibson, Matthew Lowe, Toby McCarroll and Laron Morley in the 13-14 age group, Armando Moss in the 16-17 age group and Inoa Charlton and Michael McIntosh in the 18-and-over age group. Lowe, a two-time CCCAN member, said he will focus on winning at the regional event, preferably in the 200 butterfly or the 1500 freestyle. "Also, I would like to achieve personal best times in all of my events," he said. Other countries expected to attend the championships include the Netherlands Antilles, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda, Honduras, Aruba, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, Mexico, Bermuda, Nicaragua, the Cayman Islands, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, St. Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, El Salvador and Grenada. Monday, June 29, 2009