The picture is of the sea at Grand Anse beach, from my favorite spot. This has been a very busy week and long days. Nanan picks me up at 8 every morning; we run the coaching clinic from 9-3pm every day; have a slight break where we typically have a staff meeting, run an errand, and update email, then have national team training from 5:30-8pm. Last night I was too tired to cook when I got home. Not that I had any food to cook anyway :) The clinics continue to go well. Yesterday we discussed the volleyball situation in Grenada and what needs to happen to improve it. There were many ideas and an open discussion.
It seems a big obstacle is time. Several sport seasons overlap with each other and there is only a small pool of athletes on the Island to participate. Everyone competes with each other for the best athletes. Similar to the US actually, although we have a larger pool. In addition, typically one or maybe two coaches coach ALL the sports! They receive NO compensation for any coaching duties. They are worn thin from the time commitment and simply find it hard to add another sport to their duties.
A third obstacle seems to be a conflict between education and sports. There is an emphasis on education presently (and rightly so), even at the expense of extra-curricular activities (not rightly so). The Ministry seems aware of the conflict, as well as the Grenadian Olympic Committee, and is looking into it. As with anything involving government, this will not be resolved in the immediate future. The problem seems to be the education side does not see the long term benefit of participation in sports, and actually wants to lengthen the school day, add curriculum, and make participation in sports something that is done on the student's own time.
Kids are kids...and often will make 'interesting' choices with presented with different paths. Few are willing to take a difficult path when an easier path leads to more immediate satisfaction. I feel we should not blame our youth for behaving in what I consider to be, a 'typical' manner. We cannot expect all our kids to behave exceptionally. That's why they are 'exceptions.' I do believe, however, we can lead our children, help them make good choices by giving them options and direction. I've learned kids, like everyone, want direction, to be held responsible, they want discipline, and will rise to lofty expectations.
Being a sports person, I understand the benefits of participation in athletics. It is my goal to express these benefits to all concerned, to develop a strategy to create another opportunity for athletic participation for children in Grenada, and to follow-up!
Okay, enough of my soap-box speech. It was beautiful yesterday....overcast all day! It was tolerable in the sun and we ran drills outside with the coaches for nearly 4 hours. Mrs. Bruno-Victor and Mr. Francis (from the Ministry) visited and watched for a bit. During scrimmages, the women coaches said they no longer wanted to be on the same team as the men. They said as soon as we started keeping score, the men played only to win and would not let them touch the ball!!! So we scrimmaged...men vs. women. We had 8 men and 11 women today. The women won 25-16!!!! What????!!!!!! I have a feeling there will be a rematch today :)
I have not been to the beach all week. I miss swimming already. I have water!!! I feel blessed. Before every practice we pray. I hope when it's my turn I speak to God appropriately.
Men's national team practice went well. We worked on team defense and positioning. We will likely run a perimeter defense and are focusing on double blocking as of now. We are also implementing the 3 person serve receive formation. The men picked up Base Defense, spike defense and the serve receive formations incredibly quick!!! I was very impressed last night and am encouraged.
That is all for today. I need to shop for food tonight. Still missing a cheeseburger!!!
Respect and Love.
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