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What Immortal Hand...?
(7 September 2000) - The recent title success for St. Lucian boxer Benjamin "Tiger" Modeste may mean a regional card for the island in November. In Barbados last week, 34-year-old Tiger beat Trinidadian Learie Bruce for the World Boxing Council's vacant Continental Americas lightweight belt. He was forthwith ordered to stage a mandatory title defense within three months. His chosen opponent is the man he was first meant to meet in the Barbados bout, Barbadian pugilist Sherwin Marshall.
Promoter Sammy Layne, according to the Barbados Nation Online, is planning a series of meeting with St. Lucian government and sporting officials, all with a view to having the match in Castries. There's no word as to which officials he'll be talking to in St. Lucia - in the absence of an active boxing association, the only recognised boxing administrators he could have dialogue with would be former Boxing Association vice-president George Alfred and Secretary Theresa Alcee.
Layne's visit could also be a week premature. Next week, at long last, the Association - with an assist from the Ministry of Youth and Sports - will be staging its annual general meeting, after at least two unsuccessful attempts earlier this year. Among those who had been considering participating in the AGM are entrepreneur and promoter David "Shakes" Christopher, freelance journalist Robertson Henry and former European title contender Daniel Fontalio. Reports from persons close to boxing also indicate that Amateur Athletics Association president Alfred Emmanuel, with his term of office almost at an end, will seek to run things in the squared circle.
Layne will face other problems, but sponsorship ought not to be one of them. Windward & Leeward Brewery, under the Guinness label, have been consistent supporters of local boxing. It shouldn't be hard to persuade them to get involved, and St. Lucia's corporate sector at large will always come out for a big fight.
Where do you hold it? Not at Marchand Grounds, not in November. A year ago, St. Lucia hosted the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Championships - the last serious boxing on the island - at the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School auditorium. The venue is fairly large, but depending on projected ticket sales a factory shell or some other arrangement may be considered, or they could cover the Sports Complex. All in all, if the Modeste-Marshall fight works out, it could be, and hopefully will be, the beginning of a boxing revival.
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More Sporting Success On The Links
(10 September) - The first workout for the eighteen-hole, international-standard championship course at the St. Lucia Golf and Country club proved to be a great success for St. Lucia in every sense. Golfers from throughout St. Lucia and the Eastern Caribbean were on hand for the combined St. Lucia/OECS Open at the weekend, St. Lucia enjoyed a victory and the course played pretty well. More important, in spite of near-constant rain throughout the weekend, the course also drained very well.
Minus their best player, the St. Lucians failed to take the main men's individual title, which went to Trevor Levine of St. Kitts - Cliff Alcide and Eugene Edwin of St. Lucia were second and third, and the host territory took the men's team title. In the women's race, Petra Pinotsis was the champion for the home team, as befits her status of OECS team member. Englishman John Wright (playing for St. Lucia) and St. Lucia Golf Association president Trevor Cozier were first gross and net in the seniors' division, while former Association president George Noon took the super seniors' title.
Four team championships for St. Lucia and, of course, the overall title. This on a pretty sophisticated course that will host the Caribbean Championships in 2004. Cozier thinks there are one or two kinks to sort out, but he says there are more positives than negatives on this course. "It drains very well, for instance, and that's very important. We'll get a better feel for it next year, when we'll have the St. Lucia Open a lot earlier."
Vincent Morton, president of the OECS association, also sees this course as a fillip for the sport in the sub-region. "Now, in addition to St. Kitts, we have a really very good championship course, and with our emerging crop of junior players, I can see the OECS challenging for a Caribbean title pretty soon." Following from 1999, when St. Lucia's Chris Taylor won the Caribbean Junior Individual title, the OECS took this year's team title.
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No Title Defense for St. Lucia, Volleyball BGM Postponed
(5 September 2000) - The St. Lucia national women's volleyball team was in training up to a few weeks ago, but that was before the likes of Gifta Dujon, Signa President and Leanne St. Rose departed to begin their collegiate careers in the United States, at New York's Concordia University.
Recent word from the St. Lucia Amateur Volleyball Association is that the national side, which had been preparing to defend its Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States title, discontinued training due, essentially, to a lack of talent. It's an unfortunate situation for the Association - the silver lining is that the island's newest student athletes will be back in three to four years with more experience and a higher skill level. Oddly, it only just dawned on SLAVA that they'd be losing these young ladies, who've been exploring college possibilities for months.
Further, the Association - aided and abetted by the Ministry of Sports - had no plan for the development of new, young players. This even though half the national team left school in 1997, when the Inter-Secondary Schools volleyball tournament was last held. The schools' competition is due to return in term two of the 2000-2001 scholastic year, hopefully with similar good results.
Meanwhile, SLAVA's biennial general meeting was scheduled for last weekend, but the Association was unable to drum up a quorum. The BGM is slated for 16 September now, and nominations are open for elections to the executive. At the BGM, reports will be entertained from the President, Secretary and Treasurer. The venue for the meeting is the Chamber of Commerce in Vide Boutielle.
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Bolo On The Ball In US A League
(4 September 2000) - Former St. Lucia national youth footballer David "Bolo" Flavius ended the 2000 season in the National Professional Soccer League - a second term as a pro in the United States for the 28-year-old from La Clery - as the leading scorer for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Flavius, the brother of national captain Earl Jean, is the all-time record scorer at Ohio Dominican College, where he competed his bachelor's degree earlier this year. Now, having played twenty-five games fro the Hounds this year, he's a fan favourite after managing to work his way into the regular starting lineup. More importantly, he's found the back of the net eleven times this year, adding four assists to give him twenty-six points, eleven more than the next best Hound.
Bolo's also been a clutch player for the Pittsburgh franchise, claiming three extra-time goals, including a golden goal off the bench fairly early in the season, a strike that gave him a healthy dose of confidence and all but forced his promotion to the starting lineup. The second-year Hounds didn't meet their goals this year, failing to make the A-League playoffs. Individually a number of Hounds have had varying measures of success, their St. Lucian import not least of them.
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Knockay Starts Well
(8 September 2000) - He was a junior college star at Central Arizona College; after running away with one national title after another in St. Lucia, he did the same in the United States. Now, Mon Repos distance runner Zepherinus "Knockay" Joseph is at the University of North Florida, beginning what promises to be a terrific two-year run at a four-year institution.
He got his full college career underway with a four-mile cross-country run at the University of Florida golf course, in the Twilight Invitational, a race he had said in advance "[wouldn't] really be competitive, just something to find out where I am against this level of opposition." Where he ended was second, in 20:31.31, well ahead of his closest UNF Osprey teammate, and behind only a runner from the host university.
Zepherinus, after the race, described his run as "lazy" but it's typical of him to understate his explosiveness this early in the season. He's had no international competition this year save for the Central American and Caribbean Cross-Country Championships in February, but he's already stated his goals for his time at UNF: to run world class times.
No betting against him from this corner. Knockay's performance at the Twilight Invitational on Thursday goes to show that he's continuing to make hay while the sun shines. Also at the Florida meet, Zepherinus bumped into another St. Lucian, Windy Augustin, who was 29th in the women's event, running for Bethune-Cookman College, where she's a junior.
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