Primary schools get baseball boost

...Pilot league for Corporate Area, St Catherine in April

BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter

Saturday, February 11, 2012

AS Jamaica looks to spread its sporting interest in the field of baseball and prepares to start a local school league some 12 primary schools from the Corporate Area and St Catherine received baseball gear towards the effort at a small function held in the boardroom of the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) at Independence Park, yesterday.

The six Corporate Area recipients are Tavares Gardens, Dupont, Kingsgate, St Richards, Excelsior, and Pembroke Hall; while the St Catherine lot embraced Homestead, Angels, Ascot, Friendship, Crescent and Ensom Primary schools.

The equipment, which will help to prepare for a pilot league proposed to begin in April, was donated by Mario Signorello, senior accounts executive with US Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Miami Marlins.

Included in the gift are gloves, balls, bats, masks, chest guards and chin pads.

Ground was last month broken for an international standard baseball diamond to be built at the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in Spanish Town and Minister with responsibility for Sport, Natalie Neita-Headley, was delighted that things were moving so speedily to get the project off the ground.

"The persons who have been involved have certainly been very purposeful, very focused and I'm happy to see that it is moving along very quickly. I don't like to see that we conceptualise and have great ideas and then they never move forward," she said.

"I don't think we're short on ideas in Jamaica, I think we're short on implementation and this for me signifies implementation and the commencement of a sport that I think will do very well here," added Neita-Headley..

The minister who cradles the sport portfolio added that she hoped the project would expand beyond the initial 12 schools and in a short time will bring rural primaryand also high schools into the loop.

Baseball is not a traditional Jamaican sport despite its popularity in neighbouring Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the United States of America.

"Sometimes if we always seek to stick with what we already have we might be getting the same results for years to come, but while we continue to strive and develop the other areas we have already been a part of, we are not averse to looking to see how best we can explore other areas and other games that could possibly give us the kind of outcome that we're looking for," Neita-Headley noted.

The minister has intimated that the possibility of manufacturing baseball equipment here in Jamaica is an area she is exploring.

"Part of my drive is to look at sports as a business and how we can earn more from the business of sports. One of those areas is sports manufacturing. We have a plan afoot, it's in its initial stage and I'm looking at how best we can encourage job creation through sports," she said.